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Article

9 Apr 2021

Author:
SUGURU KURIMOTO, NAOKI MATSUDA and HIROKO MATSUMOTO, Nikkei (Japan)

Fast Retailing, parent company of Uniqlo, says company is politically neutral but will halt business with human rights violators

"On Xinjiang, Japan's brands hold their breath ahead of Biden-Suga", 9 April 2021

At an earnings briefing on Thursday, Tadashi Yanai, president of Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing, insisted the Japanese apparel company was neutral when it came to politics.

"Of course if we find any human rights problems in any of our factories or cotton production, we immediately stop doing business" with such a supplier, Yanai said when asked by reporters on China's treatment of its Uyghur Muslim minority population in Xinjiang.

But he added: "We are politically neutral. If I say any more, it will become political, so I will stick to 'no comment'."

[...] Fast Retailing was among nearly four dozen companies urged last month by institutional investors to reveal more information about their supply chains.

[...] Greater China, including Taiwan and Hong Kong, accounts for more than 20% of Fast Retailing's revenue. [...]

Part of the following timelines

China: 83 major brands implicated in report on forced labour of ethnic minorities from Xinjiang assigned to factories across provinces; Includes company responses

China: Mounting concerns over forced labour in Xinjiang

Brands face boycott in China over decision not to source Xinjiang cotton due to allegations of forced labour