ILO and Sharoushi Federation jointly advance SMEs’ efforts on responsible business conduct

TOKYO (ILO News)—On 25 March 2025, the 20th and final session in a series of human rights due diligence seminars for small and medium-sized enterprises, jointly held by the ILO Office for Japan and the Japan Federation of Labor and Social Security Attorney’s Associations (Tokyo, President: Minoru Ohno), was held online garnering 76 participants.

These seminars have been held in 19 locations nationwide since September 2024 to deepen understanding of human rights due diligence, the enterprise-level process to identify and address adverse impacts on human rights and labour rights in corporate activities including its supply chains. For each seminar, a BHR (Business and Human Rights) promotion labour and social security attorney – trained nationwide by the federation with the technical support of the ILO – was invited as a speaker. At the seminar in March, Mr Tsutomu Komoda explained the basic ideas of human rights due diligence to participants from SMEs and their associations overseeing these matters, stating, “Engaging in dialogue is essential part of business and human rights. We are here to guide and support you through the journey as labour and social security attorneys. So, do seek our help.”

The ILO has conducted this seminar series since April 2024 as part of phase II of the Building Responsible Value Chains in Asia project , funded by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan; the total number of participants amounted to 628 attendees from 531 companies. At the final seminar, jointly held with the Global Compact Network Japan , its deputy executive director, Mr Kazuto Tsuruga, explained the Japanese version of “Advancing decent work in business through the UN Global Compact Labour Principles ,” a free e-learning material for international labour standards and business and human rights.

© ILO/Aki Chizuka

© ILO/Aki Chizuka