16th October 2017

Report on 2017 Business and Human Rights Conference in Tokyo“Building Responsible Supply Chain and Grievance Mechanism”
The 2017 Business and Human Rights Conference in Tokyo, hosted by Caux Round Table Japan (CRT
Japan), co-hosted by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, and the Institute for Human
Rights and Business, was held on the 15th September, 2017. The conference had the three pillars,
focusing on (1) enhancing awareness and understanding on the latest trends in business and humanrights, (2) facilitating collaborative work to promote a respect of human rights and (3) facilitating theimplementation of United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The global
experts and attendees also discussed how to address a wide range of business risks on supply chain andbuild a responsible supply chain.
In the morning session at the conference, 10 human rights experts introduced the latest global trends on
business and human rights including responsible supply chain, human rights due diligence, megasporting events, grievance mechanism, information disclosure and reporting and corporate humanrights benchmark.
The afternoon session at the conference introduced a trend on responsible investment by institutional
investors in Japan, business cases by Japanese companies on how they fulfil their responsibility torespect human rights required by the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The
Japanese companies illustrated their business cases on how they strived to build a responsible supply
chain and they carried out a human rights impact assessment. At the end of the conference, theworkshop was conducted for the foreign experts and domestic attendees to discuss how companies
could facilitate their human rights activities. The conference attracted more than 100 people from thepublic and private sectors.
Prior to the conference, the sponsoring companies had an exclusive dialogue with overseas humanrights experts from the leading initiatives in this field. They introduced their human rights and CSR
efforts and exchanged the views with the experts on how to enhance their management. The companies
found the dialogue very useful for gaining new perspectives and improving their human rights due
diligence.

Caux Round Table Japan
Shibuya Sanshin Mansion 505, 29-33 Sakuragaoka-cho Shibuya-ku Tokyo 150-0031 JAPANhttp://crt-japan.jp/en/

Overview of 2017 Business and Human Rights Conference in Tokyo
Host
Caux Round Table Japan (CRT Japan)
Co-HostInstitute for Human Rights and BusinessBusiness & Human Rights Resource Centre
Sponsor*ANA HOLDINGS INC.
*FUJI OIL HOLDINGS INC.
*NIPPON EXPRESS CO., LTD.
*Shiseido Company, Limited
Cooperation*FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation*Nomura Research Institute, Ltd.
QUICK Corp.
Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co., Ltd.
(* are the companies that had an exclusive dialogue with overseas human rights experts)
SupportBrain Center Inc.
E-Square Inc.
Sustainability Communication Hub Co., Ltd.
TOPPAN PRINTING CO., LTD.
YUIDEA Inc.
Japan NGO Center for International Cooperation
Social Design Lab., Rikkyo University
Foreign Organization
Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB)Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC)
Bluenumber Foundation
Building and Wood Workers International
Ergon Associates Limited
ELEVATEThe Danish Institute for Human Rights
Sedex
Verisk Maplecroft

Caux Round Table Japan
Shibuya Sanshin Mansion 505, 29-33 Sakuragaoka-cho Shibuya-ku Tokyo 150-0031 JAPANhttp://crt-japan.jp/en/

Opening Remarks
Hiroshi Ishida, Executive Director of CRT Japan, introduced therole of CRT Japan as a bridge connecting Japan and the World,
connecting businesses and stakeholders, and its activities in linewith the three principles of fairness, integrity, and honesty inorder to define “what is right rather than who is right.” He shared
his expectation that this conference would be a learning place forthe foreign experts and attendees, and would be beneficial to theattendees in facilitating their human rights initiatives. In addition,
as human rights issues became more complicated and serious
during a time of rapid globalization, there were increasing calls
Opening remarks by Ishidafrom various stakeholders for companies to take concrete action
to address human rights issues. He shared that it was important to
respond to such calls so as to continue to conduct a business smoothly, and this would lead to the gainof trust from their stakeholders and sustainable operations of business. Lastly, he shared that as
institutional investors appeared to be more interested in looking at ESG performance of companies,
Japanese companies should enhance their ESG performance and disclose information more fully in the
future.
Introduction to Global Trends of Business and Human Rights
In this session, an extensive panel of human rights experts gathered to share global trends of businessand human rights, and expectation for Japanese companies. The experts were from Bluenumber
Foundation, CSR Asia (ELEVATE Company), Sedex, Ergon Associates Limited, Verisk Maplecroft,
Building and Wood Workers International, the Denish Institute for Human Rights, Institute for
Business and Human Rights, and Business & Human Rights Resource Centre.
Puvan Selvanathan from Bluenumber Foundation, stated that as current certification processes tomeasure the probability of slavery in supply chain were expensive and prone to corruption, it was
important to develop a system available to workers or farmers who were vulnerable to human rights
violations, and enhance transparency on supply chain for elimination of modern slavery. The tool that
Bluenumber Foundation offers used the latest technology, and could help companies to recognize all
the people involved in supply chain, improve traceability and gain greater visibility of their supply
chains.
Makiko Akabane from CSR Asia on behalf of its parent company ELEVATE, expressed her concerns
about the impact of the rising nationalism in the United States, the U.K. and other European nations onhuman rights of immigrant workers, and also highlighted rapid progress of legislation relating tohuman rights globally. On top of that, she expected Japanese companies to enhance transparency byreporting on the progress of their human rights efforts proactively to stakeholders, overcome theJapanese unique culture to stay in line with the group, and find value to take a lead as an opinion
leader in the global stage.
Dan Murray from Sedex stated that in the run up to the 2019
Rugby World Cup and the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, there
were increasing demands from stakeholders such as buyers,investors and consumers for companies to conduct a responsible
procurement practice and disclose information. Sedex offeredservices enabling companies to identify risks on their supply
chains and report on a progress status of their corrective action.
Dan emphasized that in order to conduct a continuous
improvement, it was important to communicate policies andexpectations to suppliers clearly, and collaborate with suppliers
to work on the issues that should be addressed.

Sharing trends by global experts

Caux Round Table Japan
Shibuya Sanshin Mansion 505, 29-33 Sakuragaoka-cho Shibuya-ku Tokyo 150-0031 JAPANhttp://crt-japan.jp/en/

Steve Gibbons from Ergon Associates Limited, noted that when implementing a human rights due
diligence, it was important to pick the right approaches for different countries and sites, integrating
stakeholder views and information into the due diligence process and develop KPIs to track impact ofaction. Also, to make the most use of the limited resources that companies possess, he stated thatcompanies should conduct a supply chain mapping, identify hotspots and build effective responses aswell as collaborate with competitors and other companies to expand scalability of activities.
Sarah Kerrigan from Verisk Maplecroft, introduced that in regard to sustainability reporting, there
were non-financial reporting requirements for listed companies in Asia. For instance, major Asianstock exchanges in Singapore and Malaysia made it mandate for listed companies to disclose
environment, social and governance ESG information. To response to such requirements, she sharedthat companies should conduct a human rights due diligence to investigate and understand actual
conditions of sites, conduct corrective action with proper measures, and report outcomes externally. In
addition, it was also important to conduct a dialogue with stakeholders, develop an internal system incooperation with other related departments, and discuss how to address the identified issues inadvance internally.
William Rook from IHRB, highlighted the risks factors across Mega-Sporting Events life-cycle(planning & land development, infrastructure and construction, procurement of goods andservice, and event-time) such as forced eviction of residents, labour conditions at construction sites,and exploitation factories in supply chain. He expressed his concerns on the labour conditions at theconstruction sites that would be used at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, and referred to problems of
the foreign technical internship program in Japan. He emphasized that in order to make the 2020
Tokyo Olympic Games a sustainable event, companies should comply with the sustainable sourcing
code that TOCOG would produce, both suppliers and sponsors conduct due diligence, and they takeremedial action on issues.
Apolinar Tolentino from Building and Wood Workers
International, reported that in regard to the 2022 Qatar World Cup,the labour laws were not fully practiced at the construction sites,
and the immigrants were forced to work under the poor conditions.
In addition, he mentioned that timber used for construction of thestadium for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics was linked to thedestruction of Sarawak's tropical forest in Malaysia and humanrights abuses such as low wages, long hours, and prohibition ofjoining union. Despite the fact that there were workers
experiencing human rights abuses in this way, he expressed strong
Apolinar from BWI
concern that grievance mechanism has not been established yet.
He urged to provide access to remedy process based on the UNGPs in rapid, fair, confidential andaccessible procedure.
Cathrine Bloch Poulsen-Hansen from the Danish Institute for Human Rights, noted that current
various legislation concerning human rights required companies to disclose the steps of theircontinuous improvement from development of policies, identification process of human rights issues,
identified issues, process of correction action and outcomes of action. Also, she mentioned that when
exercising human rights due diligence, companies should recognize and identify adverse impacts onhuman rights arising from business activities, develop long-term strategies to address human rights
issues, and enhance transparency by disclosing the whole process of their continuous improvement of
supply chains.
Haley St. Dennis from IHRB, shared a global initiative of the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark led
by investors and civil society organisations aiming to benchmark of corporate human rights
performance and rank companies on implementation of the UNGPs. The 2017 Corporate Human
Rights Benchmark assessed 98 of the largest publicly traded companies in the world on 100 humanrights indicators. It published the 1st release in March 2017. The results revealed a small group ofCaux Round Table Japan
Shibuya Sanshin Mansion 505, 29-33 Sakuragaoka-cho Shibuya-ku Tokyo 150-0031 JAPANhttp://crt-japan.jp/en/leaders pulling ahead of the rest, the majority was lagging behind. It was to expand to more industries
and top 500 listed companies in the future. She expressed her expectation that Japanese companies
would take this as the opportunity to improve their human rights performance and disclose outcomes
more fully.
Saul Takahashi from BHRRC, pointed out that lack of engagement with NGO/NPO was a problem forJapanese companies, so both did not communicate well. For this reason, by referring to the low scorethat Japanese companies received in CHRB, he noted that human rights performance of Japanesecompanies was not likely to be assessed properly. He emphasized the importance of engagement withstakeholders with the attitude of openness and transparency, and responding to the demands from thesociety.
At the end of the morning session, Miho Okada from TraceBlue Japan, introduced the Bluemark
process-the world`s first certification to show products were free of modern slavery. She noted that
Bluemark supported the claim that a product was sustainable or responsible because all the people
involved in producing it were known and responsibly treated. Also, Chikako Miyata ANA
HOLDINGS INC., noted that ANA HD aspired to use this platform to further strengthen the
management of its supply chain for all food related services including in-flight meals enabling it tocontinue providing passengers with safe, reliable food products.
Introduction to Business Cases on Business and Human Rights by Japanese Companies
The afternoon session at the conference introduced a trend on
responsible investment by institutional investors in Japan,
business cases by Japanese companies on how they fulfil their
responsibility to respect human rights required by the UN
Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The
Japanese companies illustrated their business cases on how they
strived to build a responsible supply chain and they carried out ahuman rights impact assessment.
Shigeru Sugimoto from ANA HOLDINGS INC., introduced
Shigeru Sugimoto from ANA
human rights impact assessments that ANA conducted in 2016as a part of their human rights due diligence. With the use of social and environmental data provided
by Verisk Maplecroft and interviews across ANA Group conducted with CRT Japan, ANA Groupanalyzed the likelihood of any negative impacts, and developed measures to mitigate and prevent thesenegative impacts.
Takashi Matsuse from Kao Corporation, shared their human rights due diligence process toward theachievement of a sustainable and responsible procurement practice. He noted that Kao utilized thecurrent monitoring and Sedex to identify potential risk points in their supply chain, facilitated further adialogue with farmers at sites, and planned to utilize Bluenumber as a tool to develop traceability of
raw materials.
Tamaki Shimamoto from Shiseido Company, Limited, sharedthat Shiseido received high evaluation in Japan in the fields ofwomen`s empowerment and diversity promotion, as it enhanced
its supporting programs such as female researcher science grantand child-nursing room. To further facilitate, he noted that
Shiseido would strengthen human rights efforts and improvetransparency and traceability of supplier information.
Emi Matsukawa from QUICK Corp. ESG Research Center,
noted that more than half of the global major public pension
funds including GPIF in Japan signed the PRI, and as asset

Tamaki Shimamoto from Shiseido

Caux Round Table Japan
Shibuya Sanshin Mansion 505, 29-33 Sakuragaoka-cho Shibuya-ku Tokyo 150-0031 JAPANhttp://crt-japan.jp/en/

owners, public pension funds were promoting responsible investment. She shared her perspective thatin the future, responsible investment would be implemented more, and active-ownership activities andcollaborative engagement were on the rise.
Masashi Kusunoki from Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co., Ltd., explained in the topic ofprovision for protection against supply chain risks, that in collaboration with CRT Japan, Tokio
Marine & Nichido made insurance to cover loss caused by unanticipated events of suppliers. This
insurance would bring benefits to companies in maintaining trust from their business partners andconsumers, and gaining high evaluation from investors on their risk management.
Workshop with the foreign experts and attendees
This workshop was conducted for the foreign experts anddomestic attendees to discuss how companies could facilitate their
human rights activities. It was noted that with regard to thegrievance mechanism, it was necessary to construct multiple
mechanisms accessible for employees, people directly andindirectly influenced by business activities, first-tier suppliers,
and multi-tier suppliers. And, it was important to work with
relevant companies and organizations to enhance recognition of
the mechanisms. There were also opinions that the mechanism
enabled to grasp actual conditions and provide appropriate
solutions to the problems.

Sharing opinions through the workshop

Closing Remarks
John Morrison from Institute for Human Rights and Business, Puvan Selvanathan from Bluenumber
Foundation, and Hiroshi Ishida from Caux Round Table Japan gave closing remarks.
John Morrison emphasized that even in the times when waves of nationalism and populism werecaused in each region, human rights were the universal agenda. In order to address human rights issues,
he noted that it was necessary to acquire knowledge to identify, evaluate, prevent and alleviate humanrights risks, disclose information with transparency, and to construct a grievance mechanism
accessible to people affected by corporate activities.
Puvan Selvanathan mentioned that we were entering an era in which we could grasp what happened on
the earth in real time from the satellite due to advances in technology. While legislation concerning
human rights was further progressing, he stated that companies were more required to disclosequantitative data by implementing various human rights measures. He also noted that it was importantfor companies to work on human rights issues in collaboration with competitors, NGO/ NPO orinternational organizations, rather than implementing them by itself.
Hiroshi Ishida shared that CRT Japan held a workshop on the
Olympic Games on 13th September, and said that monitoring
Japanese companies' efforts in their supply chains was now
becoming severe globally. In addition, in order to respond to thedemands from the rapidly changing society, he noted thatcompanies should strengthen efforts in cooperation with theforeign experts who came to Japan this time. Finally, theconference in 2018 would be held from 10th to 14th September.
The foreign experts and sponsoring companies

Caux Round Table Japan
Shibuya Sanshin Mansion 505, 29-33 Sakuragaoka-cho Shibuya-ku Tokyo 150-0031 JAPANhttp://crt-japan.jp/en/

A list of Speakers
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Puvan J Selvanathan
CEO, Bluenumber Foundation
Makiko Akabane
Director Japan, CSR Asia (an ELEVATE Company)
Dan Murray
Director of Client Development, Sedex
Steve Gibbons
Director - Labour and Human Rights, Ergon Associates Limited
Sarah Kerrigan
Head of Human Rights Strategy, Verisk Maplecroft
William Rook
Regional Manager, Middle East, IHRB
Apolinar Tolentino
Regional Representative for Asia Pacific, Building and Wood Workers International
Cathrine Bloch Poulsen-Hansen
Corporate Engagement Programme Manager, the Danish Institute for Human Rights
Haley St. Dennis
Communications Manager, IHRB
Saul Takahashi
Japan Representative, Business and Human Rights Resource Centre
Chikako Miyata
Vice President, Corporate Brand & CSR, ANA HOLDINGS INC.
Shigeru Sugimoto
Manager, Corporate Brand & CSR, ANA HOLDINGS INC.
Takashi Matsuse
Vice President, Procurement – Planning, Global, Vice President SCM Strategy and Planning –Procurement, Global, Kao Corporation
Tamaki Shimamoto
Department Director, Sustainability Strategy Department, Shiseido Company, Limited
Emi Matsukawa
Principal, ESG Research Center, QUICK Corp
Masashi Kusunoki
Deputy General Manager, Marine Underwriting Dept., Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire InsuranceCo., Ltd.
Miho Okada
Managing Director, TraceBlue Japan, Director, Caux Round Table Japan
Hiroshi Ishida
Executive Director, Caux Round Table Japan

Caux Round Table Japan
Shibuya Sanshin Mansion 505, 29-33 Sakuragaoka-cho Shibuya-ku Tokyo 150-0031 JAPANhttp://crt-japan.jp/en/