The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan published on August 8, the draft of the guidelines on respect for human rights in responsible supply chain. The guidelines are the follow-up of the Japanese government’s action plan on business and human rights in 2020 which accepted the Guiding Principles on Business and Human rights: Implementing the United Nations ‘Protect, Respect and Remedy’ Framework.
The guidelines contain an easy-to-undserstand explanation of the UN Guiding Principles and their implementation in Japan.
The Guidelines are not legally binding. However, regardless of the company size, and sector, all business enterprises engaging in business activities in Japan should comply with the Guidelines, and should do their best efforts to respect human rights in their business enterprise, group companies, domestic/foreign suppliers, and other business partners.
The term “supply chain” as used in the Guidelines refers to “upstream” in relation to the procurement and securing, etc. of raw materials and resources for their products and services, facilities, and software, and “downstream” in relation to the sale, consumption, etc. of their products and services.
In addition, the term “other business partners” refers to business enterprises related to their business, products, and services other than those in the supply chains. For example, foreign business enterprises invested by Japanese business enterprises, and foreign partners of a joint venture in Japan or abroad are included.
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