Japan

Status

On 16 October 2020 the Inter-Ministerial Committee for Japan’s National Action Plan (NAP) on Business and Human Rights launched the NAP.

The NAP is currently available in Japanese. An English version is expected shortly.

Process

At the 5th UN Annual Forum on Business and Human Rights held in 2016, Ambassador Mitsuko Shino of the Permanent Mission of Japan to the International Organizations in Geneva, officially announced Japan’s intention to develop a National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights (NAP).

In her statement, Ambassador Shino stated that Japan plans “to formulate our National Action Plan in the coming years, and [has] started preliminary discussion among relevant ministries, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry ,and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. In formulating our National Action Plan, we consider it important to listen to the voices of business and civil society. We aim to reflect those opinions in a well-balanced manner to promote responsible business activities”.

This intention was further reiterated in Japan’s SDGs Implementation Guiding Principles, released on 22 December 2016, where the government committed to developing a NAP following the UN Human Rights Council Resolution 17/4 and the recommendations by a working group established by the resolution.

At the 7th UN Annual Forum on Business and Human Rights held in 2018, H.E. Ambassador Ken Okaniwa of the Permanent Mission of Japan reiterated Japan’s commitment to formulating a NAP. In his statement, Ambassador Okaniwa emphasized the importance of the NAP by mentioning its incorporation into Japan’s “Expanded SDGs Action Plan 2018” and into the Cabinet-approved “Growth Strategy 2018”. Ambassador Okaniwa also highlighted that Japan’s “initiatives for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 could have a positive impact on the advancement of this NAP development.”

At the initial phase of the NAP formulation process, the Government of Japan has initiated its own version of a baseline assessment (with the aim of assessing the extent to which the current legal framework or relevant policies provide safeguards against business-related human rights abuse). Since March 2018, a total of ten consultation meetings were held with multi-stakeholders including line ministries and agencies, the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, the Japan Federation of Bar Association, civil society, academia, and the Japan Business Federation. The multi-stakeholder consultations covered various topics such as public procurement, human rights in international agreements, supply chains, access to remedy, as well as SMEs which generate approximately 70% of all employment in Japan. In December 2018 the Japanese Government published a provisional translation of ‘The Report of the Baseline Study on Businss and Human Rights‘.

On 16 October 2020 the Inter-Ministerial Committee for Japan’s National Action Plan (NAP) on Business and Human Rights launched the NAP.

Stakeholder Participation

First, the Japanese government began to take concrete steps to develop a NAP with the Baseline Study Opinion Exchange on Business and Human Rights, which began in March 2018. The “Baseline Study” is said to be part of the “Opinion Exchange Meeting” as a precondition for the development of the NAP, “to review the current status of Japan’s legal system and initiatives regarding the protection of human rights in business activities” (Ministry of Foreign Affairs website).

The “Opinion Exchange” was held 10 times between March and August 2018 with the participation of relevant stakeholders and government ministries, including Nippon Keidanren (the largest business association), Japan Trade Union Confederation, Global Compact Network Japan, Japan Federation of Bar Associations, and the Business and Human Rights NAP Civil Society Platform. For each exchange, a specific theme was set up and the attendee discussed over it.

The drafting process was proceeded with consultations with the Working Group and the Advisory Committee. One CSO member joined each meeting, but these meetings were limited for the members, and not open for public. Other CSOs engaged in the process by submitting public comments as well as shared their views with members of the Working Group and Advisory Committee when CSOs had the meeting on the NAP.

Stakeholders feel that CSO engagement was not broad enough (see views detailed below).

National Baseline Assessment (NBA)

In December 2018 the Japanese Government published a provisional translation of ‘The Report of the Baseline Study on Businss and Human Rights‘. This was based on Opinion Exchange mentioned above. This study describes what the Government had done, and was doing. It provides only a partial overview of the legal and policy landscape. It does not address the implementation, or identify gaps in policy or practice, which was criticised by CSOs.

Follow-up, monitoring, reporting and review

1. The period of the action plan is five years, from FY2020 to FY2025.
2. A liaison council shall be established, and each of the relevant government agencies shall implement the relevant measures.
3. The status of implementation of the action plan will be confirmed annually at a liaison meeting of the ministries and agencies concerned. When confirming the implementation status, efforts will be made to use objective indicators to the greatest extent possible, including the use of existing evaluation indicators in related government agencies. In addition to the measures in the action plan, new measures, if any, will be included.
4. In the first year, the Inter-Agency Liaison Conference will discuss the following points. For this purpose, the intergovernmental conference will start its work promptly after the formulation of the action plan.
   (1) Consideration of work methods for effective and sustainable follow-up, including discussion of what is appropriate as an evaluation indicator.
   (2) Ensure that the implementation of the action plan, in particular the dissemination of the plan of action to companies referred to in Chapter 2.2(.3) and the provision of information, will actually lead to the adoption of human rights due diligence in companies, as expressed in Chapter 3, by providing companies with relevant information (e.g., successful and problematic cases).
   (3) The committee will work with business organizations to determine whether or not they want to have the necessary work items, etc. (e.g., “the right to privacy”, “the right to privacy”, “the right to privacy”, “the right to privacy”, etc.)
   (4) As a result of the implementation of the action plan, the government will consider interviewing companies in cooperation with business organizations, etc., in order to confirm the progress of human rights deductions in the companies.
   (5) At a liaison meeting of the relevant ministries and agencies, three years after the announcement of the action plan, we will exchange views on relevant international trends and the status of the efforts of Japanese companies.
   (6) In preparation for the revision of the action plan five years after the announcement of the action plan, the liaison meeting of related ministries and agencies will start work on the revision of the action plan, taking into account the opinions of stakeholders, by approximately four years after the announcement.
   (7) In advancing the above-mentioned measures, a mechanism should be established to facilitate continuous dialogue (including opportunities to confirm the implementation status of the action plan) based on a relationship of trust between the ministries and agencies concerned and stakeholders, promptly after the action plan is formulated. An outline of the opinion exchange with the stakeholders will be made public

Stakeholders views and analysis on the NAP

CSOs feel that there was only limited opportunities to engage with the government during the NAP development process and make their voices heard.

CSOs have praised the ministry of foreign affairs (MFA) for leading the process, involving other ministries, and being open during meetings, but have criticised other ministries for not actively engaging at the events they attended, and criticised the MFA for not actively involving victims of business-related human rights abuses.

All stakeholders regardless of their original background could reach an agreement on submitting the letters of request based on common interests to the MFA to emphasise the minimum requests of all stakeholders.
1. 1st letter: https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—asia/—ro-bangkok/—ilo-tokyo/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_735159.pdf
2. 2nd letter: https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—asia/—ro-bangkok/—ilo-tokyo/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_746899.pdf

In October 2020, Japanese civil society organisations commended “the  Japanese government, which has worked hard to coordinate a new issue, “business and human rights”, since announcing its formulation in the fall of 2016.
At the same time, the announced NAP is still inadequate and must overcome a multitude of issues.”

In November 2020, Stakeholders of Japan’s National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights issued Joint Comments following dialogue facilitated by the ILO.

In Japan, since SDGs and ESG have become widespread not only among the private sector but also other sectors such as the public sector and CSOs, the development process and resulting NAP has made it hard for them to coherently connect the UNGPs to other more popular frameworks addressing responsible business conduct.