"人権対応で遅れる日本企業" 17 September 2021

[Japanese-to-English translation: Business & Human Rights Resource Centre]

[...]In a benchmark of the world's leading companies by an international human rights NGO, many Japanese companies scored below the average. This highlights Japan's slow progress in the area of business and human rights, both in the public and private sectors.

The World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA), an NGO that promotes the SDGs, has compiled the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB).

The benchmark is based on six areas, including (1) commitment through governance and policies, (2) embedding respect and human rights due diligence, and (3) remedies and grievance mechanisms. Last year was the first time that the automotive manufacturing sector was included in the evaluation, and it was evaluated in all six areas. However, the four industries including agricultural products, apparel, extractives, and ICT manufacturing sectors were evaluated with a simplified method due to COVID-19.

In the automotive manufacturing sector, seven Japanese companies were included among the 30 global companies. Two of them, Honda and Mazda, were barely above the average among the sector, but Toyota, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Nissan, and Suzuki were below the average. Honda, the top Japanese company, also ranked only ninth in the world. The CHRB pointed out that the global automotive manufacturing sector as a whole has inadequate supply chain management compared to other sectors, and lacks disclosure on forced labour and child labour.

[...]