Why a balance sheet for Game Freak or Creatures appears in the official gazette on the day of a merger notice

What this is

Why a balance sheet for Game Freak or Creatures appears in the official gazette on the day of a merger notice: the law requires it.

How it’s built

1. Japanese company law requires every company to publish a summary balance sheet each year, in the gazette, a newspaper or online.
2. A company absorbing another must also publish a merger notice in the gazette inviting creditors to object, and that notice must either point to a balance sheet already published or print one.
3. Both founders' balance sheets appeared beside merger notices, so the merger, not an annual habit, put them there.

What we assumed

• Game Freak had not published its 2015 balance sheet earlier.If it had, it could have cited that notice instead of printing again, though printing again is allowed.

Sanity check

Both known notices fall on merger-notice days, and none has been found in a year without a merger.

Where it comes from

Our calculation from other figures in the trainer’s notes:

• FiledItem numbering 2020 against current, 16 October 2020 vs current
• FiledRev earliest available 1 March 2016, 1 March 2016
• FiledAmendments to 199 188 since 2016, 1 March 2016..1 November 2026
• Filed27 October 2015 unavailable, 27 October 2015
• Estimate2015 composite: statute route is item 1 (same-day 官報 citation) or item 7 (print); both imply no earlier 440条 publication, 27 October 2015

Where it’s used

• StoryThe founders