16 October 2020

[Unofficial excerpt translation provided by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre.]

…The Japanese government supports the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights [UNGPs],…and the National Action Plan [NAP] aims to ensure the effective implementation of UNGPs.

...The Japanese government had identified five priority areas in its implementation of NAP with the understanding and cooperation of relevant stakeholders…

1. The government, governmental institutions, and local governing bodies will promote understanding and increase awareness of business and human rights. As part of this effort, it is crucial to ensure that laws and measures on business and human rights are consistent while strengthening cooperation among relevant government agencies.
2. To ensure companies understand and respect relevant laws and measures, it is also crucial to promote understanding and increase awareness of business and human rights among companies. In particular, the effectiveness of NAP will rely heavily on efforts to promote understanding and increase awareness among small-and-medium enterprises, which face human resource and material constraints…
3. To encourage companies’ proactive efforts on business and human rights, it is necessary to promote public understanding and increase public awareness of human rights...
4. As corporate activities globalize and diversify, the international community expects companies to address business and human rights not only within their own organization, but also across their domestic and overseas supply chains. Companies will need to pay attention to this point. Taking this into account, the Japanese government will continue to use tools offered by international institutions and existing frameworks for disclosing information. It will also continue to provide information on business and human rights to companies. At the same time, the Japanese government will work towards establishing a concrete system to promote companies’ efforts towards respecting human rights.
5. In the case that company actions lead to human rights violations, the Japanese government will establish access to remedy (judicial and non-judicial). It will also continue to work towards ensuring and, when necessary, improving judicial mechanisms. The government will also utilize measures for various non-judicial mechanisms, working toward ensuring access to remedy and, when necessary, improving these mechanisms. Such mechanisms include:

• consultation services for labourers, disabled individuals, consumers, etc. based on relevant laws and regulations;
• Japan Bank for International Cooperation Guidelines;
• Japan International Cooperation Agency Environmental and Social Considerations Guidelines;
• NEXI Guidelines on Environmental and Social Considerations;
• appeals process for the above;
• and the Japan’s National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises…