6 November 2024. WBI Executive Director Dr. Bonny Ling attended the 2024 Business and Human Rights Conference organised by Caux Round Table Japan (CRT Japan) in Tokyo on 25 October. This major annual business and human rights event for includes four days of intense dialogues with individual Japanese companies under the 2024 Global Stakeholder Engagement Program.
These CRT Japan events gathered representatives from top 100 Japanese companies to exchange insights with international experts on the companies’ operationalisation of human rights due diligence (HRDD). These dialogues enhance Japanese private sector’s capabilities concerning the corporate responsibility to respect human rights and to adapt to changing legal requirements, particularly those coming from Europe.
CRT Japan launched its first workshop in 2012, one year after the adoption of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). This initiative provides a platform for companies, NGOs/NPOs, and academic experts to discuss human rights initiatives aimed at fulfilling the ‘Responsibility to Respect’ and ‘Access to Remedy’—key pillars under duties arising from the three pillars of the UNGPs.
Along with Bonny, other international experts at the CRT Japan events were Guna Subramaniam, Southeast Asia Regional Advisor at the Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB), Talya Swissa, Engagement Manager at the World Benchmarking Alliance, Lailani Tolentino-Rahon, Country Manager at the Mission to Seafarers Philippines and Rishi Sher Singh, Specialist Supply Chain Sustainability and Manufacturing based in Bangalore, India.
CRT Japan Executive Director Hiroshi Ishida also spoke at the WBI-organised Taiwan Business Forum for Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence in April 2024. In a panel discussion on Operationalising Corporate Responsibility to Respect Human Rights in Taiwan, appearing with representative of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IKEA and IHRB, Director Hiroshi Ishida urged Taiwanese companies to embark on human rights due diligence and view it as a process of continuous and gradual learning and improvements.
For more information about CRT Japan’s 2024 Business and Human Rights Conference, please visit the conference programme, featuring cooperation with Ajinomoto, ANA Holdings, JP Research & Consulting, Kao Corporation, Kubota Corporation, Mazda Motor, Mizuho Research & Technologies, Morinaga Milk Industry, Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK Line), Regrit Partners, Toda Kogyo Corp., Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance and Tokio Marine.
Japanese government’s guidelines for human rights due diligence came out in 2022. In the short time since then, we have seen leading Japanese companies moving at pace to adopt a human rights policy and implement due diligence procedures. Like for all companies, this is a learning process with the potential to yield positive human rights impacts for rightsholders on the ground.
– Bonny Ling
Japan is the fourth-largest economy in the world behind the United States, China and Germany. In 2020, the Japanese Government launched its first National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights based on the UNGPs. While significant progress has been made in business and human rights in Japan, systemic issues—particularly regarding the treatment of foreign workers—remain to be addressed.
WBI has engaged in collaborative projects with Japanese partners, and our policy brief was featured in the research report Migrant Workers in Taiwan and Japan: Patterns, Issues, and Policies. We look forward to building more momentum for human rights due diligence for both Japanese and Taiwanese companies!
