(8)In August 2007 the Accounting Standards Board of Japan and the IASB announced their agreement to accelerate the convergence by eliminating major differences between Japanese GAAP and IFRS by 2008 and the remaining differences before the end of 2011. The Japanese authorities do not require any reconciliation for Community issuers which prepare their financial statements according to IFRS. Therefore, it is appropriate to consider Japanese GAAP equivalent to adopted IFRS from 1 January 2009.