CRT Japan conducted a survey of supervising organisations and registered support organisations that manage migrant workers coming to Japan. We are pleased to report the results of that survey.

Background
Caux Round Table Japan (hereinafter referred to as ‘CRT Japan’ or ‘We’) has received numerous inquiries from companies which we have connections seeking to identify reliable supervising organisations and registered support organisations from a ‘business and human rights’ perspective, in light of the increasing number of technical intern trainees and specified skilled workers coming to Japan. These companies wish to select appropriate organisations to promote human rights due diligence in their own businesses and supply chains. In response to this, we have conducted a questionnaire survey targeting supervising organisations and registered support organisations with the aim of understanding and evaluating their efforts to respect human rights in accordance with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UN Guiding Principles), and to publicly disclose the names of highly rated organisations, along with some of their responses.

Survey Targets
We sent questionnaires by post to 257 organisations and/or registered support organisations (hereinafter referred to as ‘organisations’) that are members of groups and networks considered to be interested in respect for human rights, as of the end of April 2025.

Survey Method
In April 2025, we sent a request for cooperation in a survey by post to 257 organisations, and by the survey deadline in May, we received responses from the following 11 organisations. By the end of June 2025, we developed the ‘Evaluation Methodology (Draft) – in Japanese only’ and sent provisional evaluation results based on this methodology to 11 organisations. We then requested additional information from those organisations as necessary, and four organisations provided additional information. We revised the scores, as a result, and the average score for all 11 organisations increased by 1.6 points from 17.0 to 18.6. Please note that the above ‘Evaluation Methodology (Draft)’ will be further refined in the future, taking into account the feedback received from the supervising organisations and registered support organisations that responded to the evaluation.

• 協同組合アシスト　https://www.assist-tokyo.asia/
• 公益財団法人国際労務管理財団　http://www.ipm.or.jp/
• ARCH plus協同組合、ARCH plus株式会社　https://arch-plus.co.jp/
• ティー・アイ・シー協同組合　http://ticc.or.jp/
• アジア技術交流協同組合　https://asea.jp/
• みらい協同組合　https://www.mirai-kk.net/
• 協同組合西海協　https://www.saikaikyo.com/
• GMT協同組合　https://gmtasia.jp
• ＲＤ事業協同組合　https://www.zazen-rd.jp/
• 千葉中部流通協同組合　https://www.ccra-c.jp
• 協同組合グローバルリンク　(No response was received regarding its website information.)

 
Evaluation Results
There was a total of 22 questions, of which 16 are evaluated, excluding 6 questions. The questions were divided into Section A, B, C, and D, but the evaluation was limited to questions in Section B (basic information) and Section C (business and human rights initiatives). We are now publishing the evaluation results of the eight organisations that received high evaluations, as well as the their responses in Section C. Please see below for the names and scores of the eight organisations. The average score for all 11 organisations was 18.6 (out of a maximum of 36 points for all questions).

 

The average percentage of points scored by all 11 organisations for each question is shown on the right. Question B-1 (Proportion of prefectures where staff are stationed), Question B-6 (Criteria for stationing staff at employers’ workplaces), Question C-4-1 (Measures to prevent the collection of recruitment fees), Question C-4-3 (Measures to promote workers’ understanding of human rights and labour rights), Question C-4-5 (Establishment of grievance contact point, systems and mechanisms), and Question C-4-6 (Effective response to raised concerns and complaints) had an average score of less than 50% of the maximum score among all 11 organisations. For details in scores for Questions in Section B and C, please refer to here – in Japanese only.
 
Message from our executive director
CRT Japan has commenced the development of evaluation criteria for supervising organisations and registered support organisations. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all the supervising organisations and registered support organisations that have kindly cooperated with us in this initiative. We are delighted to have taken the first steps in this project alongside the 11 organisations that are sincerely committed to improving the recruitment and employment environment for technical intern trainees and specified skilled workers. Going forward, we will continue to pursue this initiative. We aim to gradually raise awareness among companies about this initiative so that the evaluation results can be utilised to reduce human rights risks and implement human rights due diligence within each company, ultimately leading to the establishment of safe recruitment and employment pathways for every worker. Furthermore, we are committed to fulfilling our role in building a foundation of trust among the three parties — workers (technical intern trainees and specified skilled workers), supervising organisations and companies — and we kindly request your continued guidance and support for this project.

 
We have received comments regarding this initiative.

The criteria for ‘standards for excellent supervising organisations’ established under the Technical Intern Training Programme do not currently include items that comply with international norms regarding respect for human rights, such as the UN Guiding Principles and the Dhaka Principles (the Specific Skilled Worker Programme does not have any criteria for determining excellent registered support organisations). However, among the various support measures actually implemented on a daily basis by supervising organisations and registered support organisations, there are many that are consistent with the principles of international norms or are not provided in other host countries. These initiatives have, in fact, contributed to reducing human rights risks and providing remedies to those who have suffered human rights violations.
The OECD report also notes that ‘the overall framework of orientation, assistance to employers and workers, and responsibility for daily living in the initial phase of labour migration provided by supervising organisations should be maintained’* and there is no doubt that the appropriate selection of supervising organisations and registered support organisations is crucial in the ethical recruitment and employment of migrant workers.
Through this project of the CRT Japan, we hope that the actual practices of supervising and registered support organisations that are sincerely committed to respecting the human rights of migrant workers will become more visible in accordance with international standards, and that ethical recruitment practices based on fairness and appropriateness as well as high-quality employment management and training will become standard practice.

Shoichiro Ikebe, Executive Officer, Worlding Inc.

*OECD (2024), Recruiting Immigrant Workers: Japan 2024, Recruiting Immigrant Workers, OECD Publishing, Paris, available at https://doi.org/10.1787/0e5a10e3-en.

Enquiries
For any enquiries in English or Japanese on this survey, please contact Caux Round Table Japan at info@crt-japan.jp