"製紙大手2社の姿勢試すエクアドルでの労働問題 取引先企業で浮上の｢強制労働疑惑｣にどう対処," 5 August 2024

”Unofficial Japanese-to-English translation by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre”

"We were treated like livestock." 106 Ecuadorians filed lawsuit against Japanese company for modern slavery...

The Japanese company in question is Furukawa Plantaciones Ecuador (FPC), which was established in 1963. It operates abaca plantations in Ecuador, Central America...

The article said that proceedings are underway to hold the plantation owners criminally liable. Separately, a lawsuit is underway by plantation workers alleging that the FPC violated the constitution by forcing them to work. In 2021, the first and second trials were decided in favor of the workers...

In April of this year, a statement compiled by the Human Rights Council's Special Rapporteur, Prof. Tomoya Obokata (the University of York in the UK), and others pointed out that the FPC has been committing serious human rights violations, including forced labour, for over 60 years...

As we continued our research, we learned that the Japanese companies with business relationships with FPC were Mitsubishi Paper Mills and Nippon Paper Industries...

Mitsubishi Paper added that "a third-party company that visited the site explained to us that there was no evidence of child labour or forced labour," but did not respond to a follow-up question about what the third-party company was.

Nippon Paper commented, "We will refrain from answering due to confidentiality obligations," and did not even disclose whether or not it had a business relationship with the company...

Prof. Obokata points out, "only listening to the opinion of FPC is not insufficient. It is important to listen to those who claim victimisation." ...