[ Responsible Supply Chains in Asia: The Electronics Sector in Japan ] 20 June 2022

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This report focuses on business practices of Japanese electronics companies that operate extensive global supply chains (GSCs) in Asia from a social responsibility point of view. For the purposes of this document Socially responsible business practices are defined as business and employment strategies that are in line with the recommendations of the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy (MNE Declaration). It discusses the concomitant challenges the industry faces within GSCs, and highlights good practices of these multinational enterprises (MNEs) from the perspective of aligning competitiveness and decent working conditions in these complex chains. As such, this report does not deal with auxiliary, non-core activities such as philanthropic and community outreach programs, but is solely devoted to analysing practices that constitute core strategies relating directly to each of the company’s business domains.

The report firstly provides an overview of how GSCs have evolved using key terms including fragmentation dynamics and product architecture (integral and modular). Then it summarizes the current situation of the Japanese electronics industry in the global economy, and how its position with regards to different electronics products have changed over time, in order to give a clear perspective of the challenges and the context where they take place. The electronics industry entails a highly diverse set of goods (both intermediate and final), which is reflected in Japan’s different relationships with the rest of Asia. It finally highlights cases of good practices in both intra- and interfirm relationships within GSCs.

The key message of this research is that business practices compatible with decent working conditions are highly correlated with competitiveness and business performance. The report is primarily concerned with collecting such practices that illustrates the compatibility of promoting Decent Work and competitiveness. Based on this, it focuses on highlighting self-enforcing, sustainable business strategies of MNEs in the electronics industry.

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