Japan: Govt. publishes HRDD guidelines, requiring all enterprises engaging in business activities in Japan to respect human rights in their supply chains, not limited to direct business partners
[Release of Japan's Guidelines on Respecting Human Rights in Responsible Supply Chains] 13 September 2022
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Since March 9, 2022, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has held the Study Group on Guidelines on Respecting Human Rights in Responsible Supply Chains to support business efforts to respect human rights, and has been working on formulating cross-industry guidelines to be followed by business enterprises.
After going through discussions at the Study Group, METI compiled the first draft of the Guidelines and widely invited the public for comments from August 8 to August 29.
In the public comment procedure, 131 organizations, businesses and individuals submitted their comments on the draft guidelines. After METI made the necessary revisions to the draft, it then reported the Guidelines to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Policy Promotion for the Implementation of Japan’s National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights, where the Government of Japan adopted the Guidelines. A summary of the comments received through the public comment procedure, and METI’s response to them, are compiled in Attachment 2.
Going forward, METI will continue to promote the Guidelines in order to make many business enterprises aware of and utilize them. METI will also actively publicize this initiative as efforts by the Japanese government and business enterprises towards advancing respect for human rights.
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