Cross-border U.S.–Japan tax and succession as the distinctive practice, valuation and economics as the foundation, and on that base investment decisions, fractional CFO work, IPO advisory and audits of educational institutions. A Japanese CPA and licensed tax accountant with EY and U.S. tax practice experience, serving clients from Tokyo and Koriyama, in English and Japanese. The first hour is free.
Estate, gift and succession planned under both tax systems at once. Fully bilingual.
Read more →Keep your accounting firm; a fractional CFO joins the management team to decide on investment, cash and succession.
Read more →Controls, capital policy, stock options. Preparation that holds up in exchange review, from the founder's side of the table.
Read more →Statutory audits and financial reporting that trustees and councillors can follow.
Management accounting that turns monthly figures into decisions, and succession design. Served from Koriyama.
Valuation and economics are the foundation of everything we do: tracing why the numbers are what they are, and showing in a model what changes if you act. On that base sit the distinctive cross-border U.S.–Japan practice and the fractional CFO role beside management. Accounting, tax and valuation are handled in one office, so the connections between them are not lost.
日米税務
For individuals and families with assets, relatives or businesses in both countries. The focus is personal wealth tax and business succession, planned under both systems at once.
社外CFO
Keep your accounting firm; we bring finance, accounting and tax into one view and sit beside management on a monthly retainer. Monthly reporting, investment decisions, bank and parent-company reporting, management accounting and costing. Read more →
企業価値評価
Investment modeling and valuation are the office's strongest ground. Capital investment, new business and M&A decisions, stock options, preferred shares and related-party transactions, in a form that can be defended for both tax and financial reporting.
IPO支援
Building a control environment that withstands exchange review, and working alongside management with the audit firm and lead underwriter through every stage of listing preparation.
学校法人監査
Statutory audits of incorporated educational institutions under Japan's Private School Promotion Subsidy Act, with reporting to boards of trustees and councillors.
There is no hand-off between the person you meet and the person who does the analysis. Judgment calls, signatures on valuation reports and explanations to the authorities are the CPA's own responsibility.
Accurate numbers are only the starting point. We trace why they are what they are, show in a model what changes if you act, and put it in a form management can decide on. A stock option valuation has tax consequences and an IPO capital policy shapes a future estate, so one office looks at the whole.
The best answer in one country can be the worst in the other. We put both tax codes on the table at the same time and build the structure that puts the least strain on the family and the business.
Norio Arai is a Japanese certified public accountant and licensed tax accountant. His work rests on one conviction, that the job is to help companies grow and prosper, and he has seen it tested in two settings. At a U.S. CPA firm in Tokyo he supported companies entering the United States: a major trading house's U.S. subsidiaries, a leading manufacturer's equipment exports to the U.S. market, and technology startups setting up U.S. operations. At Ernst & Young ShinNihon LLC he worked on IPO support and audits of listed companies and saw several listings through. He opened this office in 2021 and now advises listed groups on accounting and tax, builds investment models and valuations, and advises individuals and families with ties to both countries on their personal tax affairs.
Born in Koriyama, Fukushima, he graduated from Asaka High School and Hitotsubashi University (B.Com., M.Com.). He studied valuation and financial accounting as an undergraduate, then moved to economics for his master's degree in order to understand the causal relationships behind the concepts, working in organizational economics, contract theory and the economics of incentives. That training still shapes how he approaches stock option design, succession planning and governance: as problems of incentives and contracts, not only of tax. In addition to the Tokyo office he works from Arai Consulting Co., Ltd. in Koriyama, part of the Arai CPA Office and Arai Keiei Kaikei tax corporation group. He serves as an academic member of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry's Tax Policy Committee, taking part in discussions on SME and business succession taxation.
His view of the work: a number that is merely correct is not finished. It has to reach the person who will decide with it, in a form they can use.
Around 2013 a client, the founder of a technology company, told me that computer science was where things were heading and suggested I learn Python. I have kept at it since, working through MIT, Stanford and Harvard online coursework in programming, statistics, machine learning and causal inference, and now use it directly in accounting and tax practice.
Further coursework at Stanford Online, HarvardX and MIT School of Architecture and Planning is listed on LinkedIn, with the issuer's verification link for each certificate.
The first consultation (one hour) is free. We organize your situation, identify the issues, and tell you plainly whether we can help.
Norio Arai CPA Office (the "Office") complies with Japan's Act on the Protection of Personal Information and related laws, and handles the personal information entrusted to it under the professional confidentiality obligations of the Certified Public Accountants Act and the Certified Tax Accountants Act, as follows.
Information you provide through the contact form, email or meetings, such as your name, company or organization, email address, telephone number and the content of your inquiry.
To respond to inquiries, propose and quote for services, carry out engagements, communicate as needed for the work, and comply with legal requirements. We do not use the information for any other purpose.
We do not disclose personal information to third parties except with your consent, where required by law, or where necessary to carry out an engagement together with professionals bound by confidentiality (such as attorneys, U.S. CPAs or appraisers).
We take appropriate measures to prevent unauthorized access to, and leakage, loss or damage of, the information we hold.
On request from the individual concerned, and after verifying identity, we disclose, correct, suspend the use of or delete retained personal information in accordance with the law.
Norio Arai, Personal Information Officer, Norio Arai CPA Office
info@araicpas.com
Effective October 9, 2026
