Summary of the Fourth Meeting of the EU-Japan Working Group on Corporate Social Responsibility

Transcription

1 Summary of the Fourth Meeting of the EU-Japan Working Group on Corporate Social Responsibility 1. Date and venue Date: November 7, 2017; from 10:00 to 16:00 Venue: International Conference Room, 17th floor, Main Building of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) 2. Attendees (1) Morning: Closed session Venue: International Conference Room, 17th floor, METI Chairs (Co-chairs): - Ms. Kayo Matsumoto, Director, Corporate Accounting, Disclosure and CSR Policy Office, Economic and Industrial Policy Bureau, METI - Ms. Kristin Schreiber, Director, SME Policy & COSME, Directorate General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW), European Commission Attendees: Japanese side: - METI: Mr. Satoshi Kimura, Deputy Director-General for Economic and Social Policy; other officials from the Industrial Finance Division; the Corporate Accounting, Disclosure and CSR Policy Office; and the Healthcare Industries Division - Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA): Officials from the Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs Division; the Global Issues Cooperation Division; and the OECD Division - Ministry of Justice (MOJ): Officials from the Entry and Status Division EU side: Officials from the DG GROW; and the Delegation of the European Union to Japan (2) Afternoon: Open session Venue: International Conference Room, 17th floor, METI Chairs: Same as the persons shown in Item (1) Attendees:

2 Officials from the Corporate Accounting, Disclosure and CSR Policy Office, METI; representatives from: the Institute of Developing Economies of the Japan External Trade Organization (IDE-JETRO); the Global Compact Network Japan; the Council for Better Corporate Citizenship (CBCC); the Business Policy Forum, Japan; the Japan Business Council in Europe (JBCE); the European Business Network for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR Europe); the DG GROW; and the Delegation of the European Union to Japan Note: Representatives from member companies of the associations above also attended as observers. 3. Outline of the meeting Morning Session - Under the co-chairmanship of Director Matsumoto, METI, and Director Schreiber, DG GROW, the Government-to-Government session brought together the officials from METI and the EU, as well as those from MOFA and MOJ as representatives of Japan. Both sides exchanged information on recent CSR-related policies of the governments of Japan and European Commission. - Deputy Director-General Kimura delivered opening remarks. Referring to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in September 2015 as well as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights approved in June 2011, he stated that Japan and European countries need to address the changes in capital flows worldwide and those in business environments, bearing in mind globally shared values. - Mr. Takuya Fukumoto, Director, Industrial Finance Division, METI, explained METI s Guidance for Collaborative Value Creation released in May The Guidance is formulated for companies and investors to promote the disclosure of environment, social, governance (ESG) and non-financial information and to facilitate dialogues between companies and investors based on such disclosure, aiming to improve corporate value. He explained that the Guidance is complimentary to the Japanese Corporate Governance Code and the Stewardship Code. He described the details of the guidance and the next actions to encourage companies to disclose their information taking advantage of the guidance. In response to the questions from the European side, he explained the planned platform where company executives and investors discuss good practices of company disclosure as one of the mechanisms to monitor the application of the Guidance. - Mr. Hideharu Maruyama, Director, Entry and Status Division, Immigration Bureau, MOJ, explained the details of the Technical Intern Training Act, which became effective on November 1, The purpose of the new Act is to strengthen the management and supervisory system as well as protect

3 technical intern trainees. He explained that under the Act, supervising organizations are required to receive approval and that organizers of such training programs are required to file a prior notification and also file a technical intern training plan on a program-by-program basis to be recognized. Moreover, he also stated that Japan had recently established the Organization for Technical Intern Training as an authorized corporation and that the Organization will request supervising organizations and other entities to submit reports and will conduct on-site inspections and other examinations. He further explained that Japan is now striving to conclude MOCs sequentially with sending countries so as to prevent inappropriate sending organizations from doing intern sending activities. - Mr. Kotaro Katsuki, Director, Global Issues Cooperation Division, International Cooperation Bureau, MOFA, explained policies for SDGs undertaken by the government of Japan. He stated that Japan established the SDGs Promotion Headquarters headed by the Prime Minister, compiled the SDGs Implementation Guiding Principles, and endeavors to carry out the principles in a steady manner. He also described Japan s publicity approaches, including SDGs Award, to disseminate and raise public awareness of SDGs. - Mr. Masatoshi Sugiura, Director, Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs Division, Foreign Policy Bureau, MOFA, explained Japan s progress in formulating the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights. He described that after Japan announced to undertake the formulation of the plan in Geneva in November 2016, it subsequently started working on a baseline study in collaboration with related ministries and agencies. As the first step of the formulation process, this study aims to assess Japan s current systems and the initiatives to provide safeguards for human rights in the course of business activities. He further noted that Japan considers it important to take into account the opinions of the business sector, labor associations and citizen society in working out the action plan. - Ms. Haruna Konno, Assistant Director, Healthcare Industries Division, Commerce and Service Industry Policy Group, METI, explained the health and productivity management program. The program is based on the idea that it may improve corporate performance and value by improving employees productivity. She further explained the two major measures which will raise the awareness of health and productivity management. First one is the health & Productivity Stock Selection Program, which is intended to visualize company efforts by giving an award and establishing evaluation criteria. The second one is that in FY2016, Japan established a Certified Health and Productivity Management Organization Recognition Program targeting not only large companies but also SMEs. The certified organizations are recognized as making outstanding efforts for health and productivity management, which may facilitate their recruiting and business activities.

4 - Director Schreiber made a statement on the importance of the SDGs implementation exercise in the European Union, and a well-organized smart policy mix for CSR, and the ongoing UN negotiations on a legally binding treaty on business and human rights. With respect to SDGs, she explained a twostep approach towards implementation. The first work stream is to mainstream the SDGs in the European policy framework and Commission priorities. The second work stream is to reflect on further developing EU long-term vision and the focus of sectorial policies after The Multi-Stakeholder Platform will provide a forum to exchange experience and best practices on the SDGs across sectors at a local, regional, national and Union level. It will start its activities in January In noting the importance of the smart policy mix, e.g., the selection of soft law and hard law, she took an example of the Non-Financial Reporting Directive. In formulating the Directive, there were intensive discussions on its requirements and scope. One of the reasons is that there was a fear of the possible increase of lawsuits. The scope of the Directive is limited to big companies but SMEs are encouraged to follow it. With respect to business and human rights, she explained the EU position in the ongoing UN negotiations on a legally binding instrument, She noted that consumer awareness is rising in European countries and the appropriate monitoring of the uptake by business of human rights principles is important. She also mentioned that the European Commission recommends companies to take sector-specific approaches to integrating CSR principles in their business plan and strategic vision. Afternoon Session The session in the afternoon brought together the attendees above as well as stakeholders attending a separate business meeting. Participants made presentations concerning Japanese companies advanced efforts regarding CSR and delivered messages to the governments. - Under the topic titled Capital Market Union, Mr. Gabriele Lo Monaco, First Secretary of the Delegation of the European Union to Japan, introduced Europe s efforts for sustainable finance in light of the Paris Agreement and SDGs. He explained the EU efforts to integrate sustainability into financial regulation such as non-financial reporting directive, IORP (Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provisions), and activities of High Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance (HLEG). He concluded his presentation with the timeline of the next actions by HLEG which will issue Final Report by January Ms. Akiko Ueno, Assistant General Manager, Global Compact Network Japan, explained the results of a survey titled SDGs and Business in Practice: Early Actions by Japanese Private Companies conducted in She stated that member companies of the Global Compact are more likely to consider SDGs as new business opportunities than other companies. She also pointed out one of the

5 important changes between 2015 and 2016; shareholder/investor is identified as having growing influence on companies efforts for promoting SDGs, which reflects their awareness of ESG factors. - Ms. Miwa Yamada, Director, Law and Institution Studies Group, Inter-disciplinary Studies Center, IDE-JETRO, explained the summary of a survey titled Business and Human Rights in Emerging Markets conducted in April She described Japanese companies efforts regarding human rights issues in their supply chains and challenges faced in their efforts. She then proposed potential agenda for Japan-EU cooperation, such as preparation of guidelines for SMEs facing insufficient resources and holding dialogues with SME business operators. - Mr. Masao Seki, Chairman, Steering Committee, CBCC, gave a brief description of the discussions in the business meeting held on November 6, 2017, the day before this session. He reported that there was a consensus among business participants that it is valuable to continue such platform for discussion. -Mr. Stefan Crets, Executive Director, CSR Europe, stated his observations on the fourth meeting of the EU-Japan Working Group on Corporate Social Responsibility and then proposed ideas for future G-to-G dialogues, including establishment of a platform for practical action and pilots on the SDGs, and the need of capacity buildings to large companies which may encourage SMEs efforts, and target setting and collaboration at the government level. - Following this, Ms. Yukako Kinoshita, Chair, CSR Committee, JBCE, proposed approaches for the future EU-Japan Working Group on Corporate Social Responsibility. She noted the importance of holding enriched discussions concerning issue-based specific points of contention concerning such approaches as well as the significance of involving a broad range of ministries and agencies and the DG GROW in related efforts. Moreover, she emphasized the business needs to know future actions by the both governments and stated that the discussions should be directed towards the policies 10 years ahead. 4. Summary of agreements - Both sides will hold the FY2018 meeting in Brussels and will continue to conduct follow-up sessions concerning the progress in the policies that they discussed in this meeting. Moreover, they will also continue to exchange information on such policies and share best practices thereof. - At future meetings, they will also cover more specific agendas, such as issue-based goals of SDGs and advancing aging society.

6 - They will advance preparation efforts for establishing a Japan-EU platform for information exchange. Reference Guidance for Collaborative Value Creation