Human Rights Initiatives

Based on the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), National Action Plans (NAPs) have been formulated in various countries, mainly in the EU, and many NAPs include a statement on human rights due diligence.

In 2020, we established a human rights due diligence process to promptly identify, prevent and mitigate potential human rights issues.

The human rights due diligence process begins with a human rights risk assessment to assess and identify human rights risks for all stakeholders. Next, improvement activities are promoted to stop, prevent or mitigate the negative impacts of the identified human rights risks. The promotion of these activities is checked and activities to further reduce human rights risks are continued, as well as progress reporting and disclosure.

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. Progress and findings are reported to the Sustainability Committee, a management meeting focused on the deliberation of sustainability and human rights-related issues. Significant achievements and concerns related to human rights are reported and proposed to the Board of Directors each year.
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 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. We will continue to conduct investigations to identify potential human rights risks and continuously improve our working conditions.

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 Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu LLC, a limited liability auditing firm in the Deloitte Tohmatsu Group, as an organization with expertise 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 22 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 2022, a workplace harassment fact-finding survey was conducted in 309 departments of the Shiseido Group in Japan. The results of the survey were provided to each department as feedback, and each department was requested to take measures to resolve harassment issues. In response, each department took corrective measures individually. In 2023, a harassment fact-finding survey was conducted at departments deemed to be at high risk of harassment to ascertain the status of subsequent improvements. 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.

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.