Human Rights Initiatives

Shiseido upholds human rights as a fundamental principle in our business operations, fostering engagement with employees, business partners, and human rights organizations.

The Shiseido Code of Conduct and Ethics defines the actions expected of Shiseido employees. As a guideline for fulfilling our responsibility to respect human rights, we have established the Shiseido Policy on Human Rights. We expect our suppliers to fully comply with the Shiseido Group Supplier Code of Conduct, which outlines standards for human rights, legal compliance, labor practices, intellectual property protection, confidentiality, environmental protection, and fair trade.

In 2020, we established a human rights due diligence process to promptly identify, prevent, and mitigate potential human rights issues. In addition to the visible human rights risks, potential negative impacts on human rights are regularly identified, and risk mitigation measures are taken to prevent serious damage. As part of this process, we conduct risk assessments to evaluate and identify human rights risks across all stakeholders and promote improvement measures to stop, prevent, or mitigate potential negative impacts. We regularly report and disclose our progress to ensure continued efforts toward reducing human rights risks.

Our human rights initiatives are implemented through a dedicated project framework under the Sustainability Committee*. Led by the Chief DE&I Officer, the project includes participation from executive officers and conducts human rights risk assessments every two years. For any material issues identified, the relevant departments compile corrective actions and progress updates, which are reported regularly to the Sustainability Committee. Significant achievements and challenges are reported or proposed to the Board of Directors.

*The Sustainability Committee is a management meeting that deliberates on the company’s overall sustainability strategies and key issues related to the environment, society, and governance (ESG). It is chaired by the CEO and includes executive officers from relevant departments.

The scope of the risk identification process in Shiseido’s human rights due diligence not only includes our operations but is also extensively expanded into those of our suppliers. In any new business relationship, such as mergers and acquisitions, respect for human rights (compliance with personnel and labor issues, employee and customer safety, etc.) is part of the due diligence process for all investment decisions. Our human rights risk assessment focuses on issues such as forced labor and child labor, clearly regarding employees of suppliers as those in a vulnerable group. The risk mapping of both potential and visible impact on human rights is reviewed on a regular basis.

In 2024, based on themes identified through the human rights risk assessment, we implemented corrective measures and conducted a written survey on human rights across all Shiseido Group companies in Japan. The survey addressed not only fundamental issues such as harassment, long working hours, and occupational health and safety, but also topics related to LGBTQ+ rights and gender equality. In collaboration with a human rights NGO, we also conducted labor environment assessments at two group companies in Japan. Although the survey did not find any significant human rights risks, we have taken corrective measures for the cases that posed concerns.

In cooperation with external human rights experts and by referencing international codes on human rights, standards on non-financial disclosures, and the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB), we have developed a list of human rights issues to address including modern slavery issues and other wider-ranging issues. Throughout the value chain, we have identified the risks of targets relevant to the Company and organized the areas and targets of our due diligence in this field.

We assessed the status of our activities against the human rights issues identified above. This was done by interviewing stakeholders in Japan and overseas, and investigating internal documents such as surveys and reports — while also referring to external documents for any potential impact on human rights. Based on our findings, we determined the severity and likelihood of both potential and visible risks to human rights, as well as the status of our preventive and corrective measures.

Human rights risk assessment scores are mapped on two axes, severity and likelihood of occurrence, to determine the priority of responses. For severity, we assess actual risks and risks by country and region to understand their severity. For likelihood, we assign scores based on latent risks, industry-specific risks, and the existence of effective preventive and corrective processes to reduce risks. We conducted the first human rights risk assessment for the entire Shiseido Group in 2020 and the second in 2023 to confirm human rights risks. In the 2023 assessment, we received third party advice from experts in the fields of business and human rights. The risk map was reviewed regularly during the assessment, which was conducted once every two years. We identified important human rights risks of a particular priority level that needed to be addressed, and reported them to management.

We conducted human rights impact assessments at eight business sites in Japan and overseas (six regional headquarters in all regions and two factories in Japan).

A safety culture audit was conducted at Shiseido Group companies in Japan to evaluate and analyze the level of safety culture at each company in the areas of education and training, reporting obligations, performance, resources and the environment, and organization and corporate culture. The results of the audit are reported back to the Shiseido Group Occupational Health and Safety Management System Committee, which meets four times a year. The committee analyzes trends in work-related accidents at each business site and gives instructions for improvement, especially for the improvement of dangerous locations and dangerous actions to ensure that they do not recur.

In 2023, we conducted a workplace harassment survey to assess the progress of improvements at Shiseido Group companies in Japan. The survey results were provided to all responsible persons in the departments subject to the survey as feedback, and for departments that were not making sufficient improvements, corrective measures were requested again based on the survey results.

In 2023, six disciplinary actions were taken at the Shiseido Group in Japan regarding harassment. In each case, employees involved in misconduct were punished in accordance with work rules and internal regulations, and corrective measures and measures to prevent recurrence were promptly taken in cooperation with the relevant departments.

The Shiseido Group in Japan concluded a labor-management agreement relating to overtime work and working on days off (“the Article 36 agreement”) in accordance with Article 36 of the Labor Standards Act. The HR departments at major Shiseido Group companies in Japan monitor the overtime hours of labor union members every month. They also provide guidance to heads of departments where overtime is significant and encourage health checkups for employees who work long hours. Data on working hours and paid leave take-up rates are shared with labor and management and reflected in initiatives to correct long working hours.

To promote equal pay for equal work, Shiseido regularly monitors gender pay gaps among executives across the Shiseido Group, as well as among managerial and non-managerial employees at Group companies in Japan. These data are disclosed under the “Equal Pay” section of our corporate information platform, Social Data, following third-party verification.

Shiseido offers paid medical leave for employees with children (five days per year for one child) and for employees with disabilities (available by the hour for treatments or other disability-related needs), both of which exceed Japan’s legal requirements.

We offer “Diversity Week,” a program designed to enhance understanding of DE&I, to all employees across the Shiseido Group, including contract and part-time staff. In Japan, all employees of the Shiseido Group companies, including certain contract and part-time employees, also receive access to human rights awareness training and employee resource groups aimed at professional development and networking. To respond to evolving markets and business environments, we continue to provide new employee development programs, alongside DE&I literacy programs, across the Shiseido Group. In 2024, Shiseido Japan launched the “Mirai Career Plan,” a career support initiative that provides reskilling opportunities, such as digital tools training and transition programs for employees leaving the company. As part of our gender equality efforts, we have implemented NEXT LEADERSHIP SESSION for WOMEN, a leadership development program that has supported a total of 334 women since its launch. Over the program’s first seven years, 47% (114 individuals) of the 241 participating women who remained with the company have been promoted. Believing that empowering women drives innovation and contributes to long-term growth, we are working toward achieving a 50:50 gender ratio—symbolizing equal opportunity—across all levels in Japan by 2030. As of 2025, women hold 54.5% of Board of Director positions, 47.0% of Executive Officer roles, and 41.1% of management positions in Japan.

To help employees balance work and parenting responsibilities, the Shiseido Group in Japan introduced support systems ahead of legal mandates in the country. In 1993, we launched a program allowing shorter working hours for employees during their childcare years, followed in 1998 by a subsidy program (Cafeteria Plan) to assist with childcare expenses. These programs have since been expanded and remain in operation today, contributing to a more supportive work environment for employees with diverse needs.

In order to ensure sustainable and responsible procurement and respect for human rights in the course of our business activities, Shiseido works with various stakeholders to discuss both the environment and society and share and resolve issues. In dialogues with human rights experts, we received advice on how to proceed with human rights due diligence and reflect it in our activities.
In 2023, we held a dialogue with human rights experts to report on the results of our human rights risk assessment and discuss the progress of our response to each human rights risk, disclosure of human rights due diligence, and response to human rights risks in the supply chain.

Important matters of concerns and improvements gained through the dialogues with stakeholders are reported in the Sustainability Committee held annually.

In 2023, we conducted a human rights risk assessment as part of our periodic review of our risk map regarding potential human rights issues. Two of our factories were surveyed by a human rights NGO to assess the working environment, which included interviews with migrant workers. Although the survey did not find any significant human rights risks, we have taken corrective measures for the cases that were identified as human rights risks.