This paper examines whether the predictive ability of accounting information improves when leases classified as operating leases under the pre-revision lease accounting standards are reclassified as finance leases in accordance with the recently revised lease accounting standards. The sample used for the empirical analysis consisted of 36 distressed firms among listed companies that utilized operating leases and 67 financially healthy firms in the same industries as these distressed firms. The research findings indicate that reclassifying operating leases—disclosed in footnotes under the pre-revision lease accounting standards—as finance leases enhances the predictive power for corporate financial distress. These results provide supporting evidence for the argument that the economic substance of lease transactions classified as operating leases under the pre-revision standards is closer to that of finance leases, and can be interpreted as indicating that the recently revised lease accounting standards have been amended in a desirable direction.