Japanese fiscal calendars often collide with national holidays. When a warehouse closes for Golden Week while the books remain open, shipping documents and invoice dates can diverge by several days. Auditors sample both sides of the boundary.
Finance teams that keep a holiday shipping log—what left the dock, what sat in quarantine, and which invoices waited—reduce the number of clarifying emails during fieldwork. The log does not need to be elegant; it needs dates, truck numbers, and SKU totals.
For December year-ends, the same principle applies to last-minute export consignments. Customs paperwork and commercial invoices should be available in the same folder as the shipping advice so cut-off samples can be cleared in one sitting.
If your auditor asks for goods-received notes spanning five days before and after the balance sheet date, treat that as routine, not suspicion. Narrow windows miss weekend and holiday distortions that are common in regional logistics.