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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Developing Ethical Thinking to the Digital Era in Introductory Accounting
Yukari Kawai
Masako Saito
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DOI:10.17265/1548-6583/2026.02.001
Komazawa University, Tokyo, Japan
Kansai University, Osaka, Japan
This paper examines the reactions of students in introductory accounting in Japan to fraud cases to provide clues for implementing accounting education that fosters ethical thinking. To verify this, a text-mining analysis of descriptive responses to the questionnaire surveys was conducted. This survey gave students to choose the case that made the biggest impression on them from among the five fraud cases they had studied and provide the reasons for their choice. We found that students tend to view the use of accounting information subjectively and to be exposed to accounting information after first having acquired some degree of basic knowledge, which helps to foster ethical thinking. The findings can help develop these skills of ethical thinking and conducts in higher education, as information use skills, including information morality, are being promoted in elementary and secondary education in Japan. A questionnaire survey implicated the significance of incorporating ethics-related case studies in introductory accounting. One finding proposes that providing opportunities for students in introductory accounting to conduct accounting information appropriately contributes to developing ethical thinking and then to preventing fraud. This study is also expected to contribute to the development of human resources that will contribute to governance practices in the future.
ethical thinking,
information ethics, text mining, fraud prevention, introductory accounting
education, accounting information, governance
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