PricewaterhouseCoopers, the world's biggest accounting firm, will have to get used to having next to no presence in the world's second biggest economy.

PwC has announced it's closing down a Japanese affiliate, Misuzu, Japan's fourth-largest accountancy firm, over its involvement in scandal, reports the Financial Times.

Misuzu used to be Chuo Aoyama PWC. It audited the accounts of household goods and cosmetics conglomerate Kanebo which was delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2005 after admitting to accountancy fraud over a four-year period. At the time, Tokyo prosecutors arrested accountants at the PwC affiliate. Chuo Aoyama PWC was temporarily banned last year and in the aftermath, the company split and a new practice called PricewaterhouseCoopers Aarata was formed to carry the PWC brand in Japan. But the restructure did nothing to allay concerns about auditor independence and the structure of Japanese accounting firms. Misuzu audited the accounts of Nikko Cordial, which got itself embroiled in accounting fraud and PwC has been forced to shut down the reincarnation of its disgraced affiliate.

So where to now for PwC?

Writing in Slate, Daniel Gross asks whether PwC can be trusted to count the Academy Awards ballots to be announced Sunday night. They've been doing it by hand for 72 years.

In the end, Gross says they might as well stick with PwC because you can't trust any of them.

"One could assemble a similar catalog of doubts for any of the major accounting firms ... And everybody in Hollywood - agents, producers, studios, distributors - plays games with numbers. In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed auditor is king."

Yes, it's a cheap shot. But a good one.