If, say, China and other countries (e.g. Japan) change or don't adopt IFRS or a converged IFRS/GAAP standard, then will U.S. company convergence be badly harmed? Or does it just mean that complete con

In my opinion, if U.S. were ever to adopt IFRS, it will be beneficial for major economies around the world (such as Japan, China) to also adopt IFRS.

As U.S. was planning to adopt IFRS, SEC made a change to allow the companies reporting under IFRS to file financial statements in U.S., without reconciliation to U.S. GAAP.

Let me explain - if a Japanese company listed in the U.S., it is presumably required to prepare their financial statements under Japanese GAAP (J-GAAP) and U.S. GAAP. If however, the same Japanese company were to start reporting under IFRS, it will not be required to prepare financial statements under U.S. GAAP. This will be a substantial cost saving for the companies if they adopt IFRS.

Hence, this will be a substantial cost saving for the international companies and add overall efficiency to the accounting departments in general. One less GAAP to worry about will mean, less technical accounting issues, quicker audits, more free time to focus on business. Not sure it will become a reality anytime soon. Stay tuned.