KPMG AZSA LLC (有限責任 あずさ監査法人)
ConfidenceLikelyUpdated2026-07-29Review by2026-10-27Sources7Machine-translatedOriginal (JA)
On this page
- 1. Firm overview
- 2. History
- Financial-institution audit (greatest strength)
- Crypto assets / digital assets
- Regional banks / local governments
- Sustainability assurance
- 4. Major listed-FG client relationships (on a public basis)
- 5. Regulation / supervision
- Past disciplinary history
- 6. Competitive landscape
- Related
- Sources
Wiki route
This entry sits under financial-regulators INDEX. Read it alongside Ey Shinnihon and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu LLC (Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu) for peer Big 4 audit context, and Financial licenses for the regulatory boundary of the Certified Public Accountants Act / audit-quality control. The CPAAOB supervision context falls under FSA Supervision Bureau and Strategy Development and Management Bureau (FSA Strategy Development and Management Bureau).
1. Firm overview
- Legal name: KPMG AZSA LLC (有限責任 あずさ監査法人) •
- English name: KPMG AZSA LLC •
- Legal form: limited-liability audit corporation •
- Head office: Tsukudo-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo (Tokyo KPMG Tower) •
- Member network: KPMG International Cooperative (head office in Amsterdam) •
- Group entities (KPMG Japan):
- KPMG Consulting Co., Ltd.
- KPMG FAS Co., Ltd. (M&A / business restructuring)
- KPMG Tax Corporation
- KPMG AZSA Sustainability Co., Ltd. •
2. History
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2003-12 | AZSA & Co. established (merger of the Asahi + Ota Showa lineages) • |
| 2010-07 | Transitioned to KPMG AZSA LLC under the revised Certified Public Accountants Act • |
| 2020s | KPMG Japan brand integration / new sustainability entity established • |
Financial-institution audit (greatest strength) •
- Audits many entities including parts of megabank groups, major regional-bank groups, major life and non-life insurers, and major securities firms
- Mature methodology for J-SOX (the internal-control reporting system under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act) compliance
- A framework for issuing SOC 1 / SOC 2 reports
Crypto assets / digital assets •
- The “KPMG Japan Digital Assets” group
- Integrated audit of internal control (J-SOX) + crypto-custody controls
- SOC2 / ISMS readiness support
- Advisory from Public CEX × Japanese bank commitment-line case (business expertise on both financial institutions and crypto assets)
- As noted in japan-crypto-audit-firm-landscape, strength in advising megabank-affiliated / regional-bank-affiliated crypto-asset-related companies
Regional banks / local governments
- Also handles comprehensive external audits of local governments
Sustainability assurance
- SSBJ / ISSB-related assurance through KPMG AZSA Sustainability Co., Ltd. •
4. Major listed-FG client relationships (on a public basis)
AZSA has strength in auditing major financial institutions, but the latest auditor of any individual company is primary information that should be confirmed each time in the “Status of Auditors” section of each company’s latest securities report on EDINET; this entry does not enumerate specific client names.
5. Regulation / supervision
- Governing law: Certified Public Accountants Act •
- Registration: the Japanese Institute of Certified Public Accountants (JICPA) •
- Supervision: the FSA’s Certified Public Accountants and Auditing Oversight Board (CPAAOB) conducts quality-control reviews / inspections •
Past disciplinary history •
- The Olympus inappropriate-accounting case (uncovered in 2011 ): the audit of Olympus was handled by AZSA through the 2009-03 period, and thereafter by ShinNihon. 2012-07-06, the FSA issued a business-improvement order to both AZSA and ShinNihon on grounds including problems with the audit handover. It was also pointed out that AZSA had not made large acquisition deals the subject of senior review
- The surcharge (1 億 9181 万円) was imposed on Olympus itself, and did not reach a surcharge disposition against the AZSA firm itself
6. Competitive landscape
| Big 4 | Domestic brand | Public-service focus in FinWiki analysis |
|---|---|---|
| KPMG | KPMG AZSA | Financial services, internal controls and J-SOX |
| EY | EY ShinNihon | Large listed companies and financial services |
| Deloitte | Tohmatsu | Audit and assurance, FAS coordination and digital assets |
| PwC | PwC Japan LLC | Global network and digital assets |
Sources: ^[This is a FinWiki analytical comparison of public service descriptions, not an official ranking: KPMG https://kpmg.com/jp/ja/home/services/audit.html; EY https://www.shinnihon.or.jp/services/financial-services/; Deloitte https://www.deloitte.com/jp/ja/services/audit-assurance.html; PwC https://www.pwc.com/jp/ja/services/audit-assurance.html.]
Tier 2: Taiyo Grant Thornton, BDO Sanyu & Co. •.
Related
- ey-shinnihon (Big 4 peer)
- deloitte-touche-tohmatsu (Big 4 peer)
- pwc-aarata (Big 4 peer)
- taiyo-grant-thornton (second-tier major peer)
- smfg (megabank-affiliated major client domain)
- INDEX (Certified Public Accountants Act / audit system)
- fsa-supervision-bureau (CPAAOB supervision context)
- japan-crypto-audit-firm-landscape (crypto-audit cross-domain)
Sources
- KPMG Japan: https://kpmg.com/jp/ja/home.html
- AZSA & Co.: https://kpmg.com/jp/ja/home/about/azsa.html
- KPMG Japan Digital Assets: https://kpmg.com/jp/ja/home/services/audit/financial-services/crypto-assets-blockchain.html
- Japanese Institute of Certified Public Accountants (JICPA): https://jicpa.or.jp/
- FSA Certified Public Accountants and Auditing Oversight Board (CPAAOB): https://www.fsa.go.jp/cpaaob/
- EDINET: https://disclosure2.edinet-fsa.go.jp/
- The Olympus case (the business-improvement order to AZSA / ShinNihon, 2012-07-06): https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/オリンパス事件
[!info] Verification status confidence: likely (based on v1.0 public sources, 2026-05-24). The legal form, historical mergers, and Big 4 affiliation are highly reliable on a public basis. The auditor of each specific client should be confirmed each time against EDINET primary sources.
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- Certified Public Accountants and Auditing Oversight Board (CPAAOB / 公認会計士・監査審査会)In the flow of CPAAOB inspection / recommendation → the FSA Commissioner's disciplinary decision, major disciplinary cases include the following (for details of each case, see the individual...
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- EY ShinNihon LLC (EY 新日本有限責任監査法人)EY ShinNihon's Financial Services Office is an FS-dedicated organization providing cross-cutting coverage of banking, insurance, securities, asset management, and crypto-assets. It is linked...
- PwC Japan LLC (formerly PwC Arata)Regarding the financial-institution audit-client relationships of the PwC lineage (former ChuoAoyama + Arata + current PwC Japan), the range confirmable on a public basis: