The 2025 Human Rights Due Diligence Workshop was held for the 13th year, over eight sessions in the period from June 6th to August 1st. The participants identified sector specific human rights issues using the Human Rights Guidance Tool developed by the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative. This document is the result of the discussions of the participants.

Final Report
Human Rights Issues by Sector v.14
Appendix 1
Appendix1 Programme for Identifying Human Rights Issues
Appendix 2
Attachment 2 Reference Material 2025 Industry Summary(Japanese only)

You can view the reports of past programs here.

We would like to offer our great gratitude for the participants from NGO/NPO, and companies, and those who gave public comments.

Contact
Caux Round Table Japan
Email: info▲crt-japan.jp
*Replace the “▲” sign above with the “@” sign.
Phone：＋81-3-5728-6365

In 2025, the 14th Human Rights Due Diligence Workshop continued to leverage the Human Rights Guidance Tool developed by the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) to pinpoint sector-specific human rights concerns.

The Nippon CSR Consortium has released a draft document titled “Human Rights Issues by Sector,” encapsulating the outcomes of the workshop discussions. The Consortium is now inviting public comments on this draft.

Subject
Draft Version for Public Consultation

Consultation Period
1st October – 31th October 2025 (Japan Time)

Submission Address
Please send your comments to CRT Japan’s Nippon CSR Consortium secretariat, by e-mail (info{@}crt-japan.jp). Please kindly be advised that we are unable to accept comments through other methods (such as by telephone, fax, or post), nor are we able to accept anonymous submissions.

Application Procedure
Address to: Secretariat of the Nippon CSR Consortium (in CRT Japan)
Subject: Comment on “Human Rights Issues by Sector (draft)
Organization/Affiliation and Name: (Department, Name)
Email and Telephone :

Comments
We invite public comments on the following questions. In the description of your comments, please specify the industry sector, page number, and concrete issue that your comment addresses.
1.Please share any comments on the concept and procedure of this workshop
2.Please freely respond with any comments on “Human Rights Issues by Sector (draft)”
3.What kind of format and/or procedure do you consider would be most appropriate for finalizing the report?

Appendix
Appendix 1
Attachment 1 Programme for Identifying Human Rights Issues
Appendix 2
Attachment 2 Reference Material 2024 Industry Summary(Japanese only)

Submission and Inquiry
Secretariat of Nippon CSR Consortium (in CRT Japan Office)
E-mail: info{@}crt-japan.jp

Online conference for the “2025 Business and Human Rights Conference in Tokyo” will be held by CRT Japan on 24th October 2025. The conference brochure can be found here.

Fourteen years have passed since the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) were formulated, and sustainability-related laws and regulations (CS3D, CSRD, etc.) for companies are rapidly progressing, especially in Europe. Under these circumstances, it is important for companies to promote initiatives based on the UNGPs not only to comply with laws and regulations, but also to improve corporate credibility, risk management, and sustainable growth. However, there are many challenges in putting the UNGPs into practice, including understanding of management and relevant departments, cooperation with business partners, and the establishment of human rights due diligence and grievance mechanisms. This conference will provide a forum for those in charge of companies facing these challenges to learn how to effectively implement the UNGPs and find concrete solutions.

Conference Content
・Panel discussion by overseas experts on business and human rights:
　Invited international experts will discuss the main theme: effective engagement with rights-holders.
・Case studies of Japanese companies’ initiatives:
　Presentation of corporate initiatives to respect human rights in line with the UNGPs, including responses to issues identified through human rights impact assessments as part of HRDD. In addition to success stories, challenges encountered and future areas for action will also be shared.
・Interactive Session with Experts and Participants
　Through Q&A and open discussions, speakers and participants will explore potential approaches to address specific challenges.

We hope this conference will further advance corporate initiatives on business and human rights, contributing to sustainable growth and the fulfilment of social responsibility.
We sincerely look forward to your participation.

■ Date
　 Friday 24th of October 10:00-16:30
■ Format
　 Online conference by using Zoom
■ Capacity
　 Applications will be closed when Zoom’s available capacity is exceeded.
■ Registration Fee
　 Free
■ Language
　 Simultaneous interpretation in Japanese and English will be provided.
■ Registration
　 Please send an email to the following contact address with name of organization, department/title, name, email address and phone number. Zoom link will be sent before the conference.
■ Information
　 Please note that no video or presentation materials will be distributed during or after the event.
■ Contact
　 Caux Round Table Japan
　 Email: info[@]crt-japan.jp
　 Phone：03-5728-6365

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 157 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 157 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

In recent years, the importance of implementing effective responsible business practices, such as human rights due diligence, has been growing globally. In this seminar, we will explain Walk Free’s global program of work and latest research reports, with a focus on Japan and the Asia-Pacific region. Nathanael Foo, Walk Free Principal, Business and Human Rights, will be providing these details that will help you in your future efforts.

We hope that the valuable information gained from this webinar will be useful to the many companies currently promoting initiatives based on the UNGPs.

◆Date: 13:30pm to 15:00pm(JST) on Monday, September 1st, 2025
＊LIVE streaming of this seminar will be via Zoom (consecutive interpretation).
＊The URL for the Zoom webinar will be sent in an automatic reply email to those who have registered.
◆Target Audience: Professionals responsible for sustainability, CSR, legal affairs, procurement, etc. at Japanese companies
◆Content: Introduction to Walk Free’s program of work, Q&A, and discussion.
◆Speaker:
Nathanael Foo, Walk Free Principal, Business and Human Rights
Hiroshi Ishida (Executive Director, Caux Round Table Japan)
◆Participation Fee: Free
◆Languages: English, Japanese (with consecutive interpretation)
◆Registration: Please register here.

We look forward to seeing many of you there.

Caux Round Table Japan

This report compares policies regarding recruitment fees for migrant workers in the three East Asian countries of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, and identifies challenges for policy reform. The key message of the report is the Employer Pays Principle that ‘No worker should pay for a job – the cost of recruitment should be borne not by the worker but the employer.’

On 28 April 2025, a report launch event was held in Taipei with the attendance of the Chairman of TAEF, Dr Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao (蕭新煌 博士), Executive Director of WBI, Dr Bonny Ling (凌怡華 博士), and Division Chief of Cross-Border Workforce Affairs Centre from the Ministry of Labor, Mrs Hsiao Chiu Yu (于曉秋). The event was widely covered by Taiwanese media. A report on the launch event is available here.

The report is accessible below.

東アジアにおける尊厳ある移住：日本、韓国、台湾における移住労働者の募集・斡旋手数料に関する政策比較｜Migration with Dignity in East Asia: Policy Comparison of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan on Recruitment Fees for Migrant Workers in Japanese/English

尊嚴勞動與移工招聘費:日本、南韓與台灣的比較分析｜Migration with Dignity in East Asia: Policy Comparison of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan on Recruitment Fees for Migrant Workers in Traditional Chinese/English

Contact
Miho Okada
Director, Caux Round Table Japan
info@crt-japan.jp

Dr. Bonny Ling
Executive Director, Work Better Innovations
bonny.ling@wbi.org.uk

The 2024 Human Rights Due Diligence Workshop was held for the 13th year, over eight sessions in the period from June 7th to August 7th. The participants identified sector specific human rights issues using the Human Rights Guidance Tool developed by the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative. This document is the result of the discussions of the participants.

Final Report
Human Rights Issues by Sector v.13
Appendix 1
Attachment 1 Programme for Identifying Human Rights Issues
Appendix 2
Attachment 2 Reference Material 2024 Industry Summary(Japanese only)

We would like to offer our great gratitude for the participants from NGO/NPO, and companies, and those who gave public comments.

Contact
Caux Round Table Japan
Email: info▲crt-japan.jp
*Replace the “▲” sign above with the “@” sign.
Phone：＋81-3-5728-6365

In 2024, the 13th Human Rights Due Diligence Workshop continued to leverage the Human Rights Guidance Tool developed by the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) to pinpoint sector-specific human rights concerns.

The Nippon CSR Consortium has released a draft document titled ‘Human Rights Issues by Sector,’ encapsulating the outcomes of the workshop discussions. The Consortium is now inviting public comments on this draft.

Subject
Draft Version for Public Consultation

Consultation Period
1st October – 31th October 2024 (Japan Time)

Submission Address
Please send your comments to CRT Japan’s Nippon CSR Consortium secretariat, by e-mail as an attached document. Please be advised that we cannot accept comments through other methods (such as by telephone, fax, or post), nor are we able to accept anonymous submissions.

Application Procedure
Address to: Secretariat of the Nippon CSR Consortium (in CRT Japan)
Subject: Comment on “Human Rights Issues”
Organization/Affiliation and Name: (Department, Name)
Email and Telephone :

Comments
We invite public comments on the following questions. In the description of your comments, please specify the sector, page number, and concrete issue your comment addresses.

1. Please share any comments on the concept and procedure of this workshop
2. Please freely respond with any comments on “Human Rights Issues by Sector (draft)”
3. What kind of format and/or procedure do you consider would be most appropriate for finalizing the report?

Appendix
Appendix 1
Attachment 1 Programme for Identifying Human Rights Issues
Appendix 2
Attachment 2 Reference Material 2024 Industry Summary(Japanese only)
Appendix 3
Comment Sheet

Submission and Inquiry
Secretariat of Nippon CSR Consortium (in CRT Japan Office)
E-mail: info@crt-japan.jp

Online conference for the “2024 Business and Human Rights Conference in Tokyo” will be held by CRT Japan on 25th October 2024. The conference invitation can be found The international conference invitation can be found here.

Thirteen years have passed since the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) were formulated, and sustainability-related laws and regulations (CS3D, CSRD, etc.) for companies are rapidly progressing, especially in Europe. Under these circumstances, it is important for companies to promote initiatives based on the UNGPs not only to comply with laws and regulations, but also to improve corporate credibility, risk management, and sustainable growth. However, there are many challenges in putting the UNGPs into practice, including understanding of management and relevant departments, cooperation with business partners, and the establishment of human rights due diligence and grievance mechanisms. This conference will provide a forum for those in charge of companies facing these challenges to learn how to effectively implement the UNGPs and find concrete solutions.

Conference Content
・Panel discussion by overseas experts on business and human rights:.
　Discussion on “How to Engage with Rights Holders”.
・Case studies of Japanese companies’ initiatives:
　Examples of human rights due diligence and grievance mechanisms will be introduced.
・Opinion exchange: Q&A session between speakers and participants
　The speakers and participants will engage in a question-and-answer session and exchange of opinions to explore specific solutions to issues.

We hope that this conference will contribute to the realization of sustainable corporate growth and social responsibility.
We sincerely look forward to your participation.

■ Title
　 2024 Business and Human Rights Conference in Tokyo
■ Date
　 Friday 25th of October 13:00-17:30
■ Format
　 Online conference by using Zoom
■ Capacity
　 Applications will be closed when Zoom’s available capacity is exceeded.
■ Cost
　 Free
■ Language
　 Simultaneous interpretation
■ Registration
　 Please send an email to the following contact address with name of organization, department/title, name, email address and phone number. Zoom link will be sent before the conference.
■ Information
　 Please note that no videos or presentation materials will be distributed during the meeting.
　 Please note that no video or presentation materials will be distributed at a later date.
■ Contact
　 Caux Round Table Japan
　 Email: info[@]crt-japan.jp
　 Phone：03-5728-6365

The 2023 Human Rights Due Diligence Workshop was held for the 13th year, over eight sessions in the period from June 1st to July 27th. The participants identified sector specific human rights issues using the Human Rights Guidance Tool developed by the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative. This document is the result of the discussions of the participants.

Final Report
Human Rights Issues by Sector v.12
Appendix 1
History of Programme for Identifying Human Rights Issue
Appendix 2
Summary of Discussions by Industry_jp (Japanese only)

We would like to offer our great gratitude for the participants from NGO/NPO, and companies, and those who gave public comments.

Contact
Caux Round Table Japan
Email: info▲crt-japan.jp
*Replace the “▲” sign above with the “@” sign.
Phone：＋81-3-5728-6365