"Business and human rights in Japan: Rights holders’ perspectives", 24 October 2023

Emi Sugawara, Osaka University of Economics and Law, examines business and human rights issues in Japan with a focus on the priority issues from rights holders’ perspectives...

The working group’s statement emphasised the need to re-examine issues from the perspectives of women, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, Indigenous peoples, Buraku communities, labour unions, technical intern trainees, migrant workers and children and youth as minority stakeholder groups...

One important issue in Japan that was not sufficiently addressed in the working group’s statement was human rights violations committed against Korean residents...

Even today, discrimination and violations against Korean residents in Japan are serious, and discrimination and harassment in employment and the workplace, hate speech and hate crimes continue...

Second... in Japan, little attention is given to downstream effects, such as the human rights of consumers and local communities, and so the focus on human rights and the environment is weak...

The third point concerns companies’ responsibility to respect human rights holders in their supply chains. The guiding principles clearly state that companies have a responsibility to respect human rights not only within their corporate activities but also in the entire supply chain...

The working group has pointed out that Japan’s civil society calls for a National Human Rights Institution (NHRI) in response to such serious concerns raised by the rights holders...

The NHRI, an agency independent of the government at the national level, is needed as a remedy for business and human rights issues, even though some initiatives have emerged, such as Japan Platform for Migrant Workers towards Responsible & Inclusive Society (JP-MIRAI)(4) and Japan Center for Engagement & Remedy on Business & Human Rights (JaCER)(5).