Tokyo—The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., announced today that it is moving to change its fiscal accounting period to January–December, from the present April–March. Yokohama's board of directors voted to adopt the change at a meeting on December 20. The change is subject to ratification at the general meeting of shareholders in late June 2011.

Upon ratification, the change will take effect in 2011 and will result in a one-time nine-month fiscal period from April 1, 2011, to December 31, 2011. Subsequent fiscal years will begin on January 1 and end on December 31. Yokohama will announce its fiscal projections for the nine-month fiscal period to December 31, 2011, in May 2011. That announcement will accompany the release of Yokohama's business and financial results for the fiscal year to March 31, 2011.

The proposed change is to align the fiscal accounting periods at the parent company and its Japanese subsidiaries with the January–December fiscal periods employed by most of Yokohama's overseas subsidiaries. That promises to improve efficiency in budgeting, fiscal management, and other phases of management and operations.

In addition, the change will also bring Yokohama into conformance with an important element of the International Financial Reporting Standards. Those standards provide that all the corporate members of a consolidated financial entity should employ the same fiscal accounting period. Adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards is under consideration at Yokohama.