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CSR in Japan: Toward Integration and Corporate–CSO Partnership

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Corporate Social Responsibility and the Three Sectors in Asia

Part of the book series: Nonprofit and Civil Society Studies ((NCSS))

Abstract

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become an important theme in recent decades in Japan as it has in many other countries. CSR has long been narrowly defined as compliance, caring for the environment, and philanthropy in Japan. In recent decades, however, the private company has been asked to go beyond these issues to be socially responsible based on the concept of the “triple bottom line ,” which focuses on social, environmental, and financial performance. Furthermore, CSR has been recognized as a viable component for its core business, strategy and sustainability . How has CSR developed and taken roots in Japan? How have the companies tried to bridge the gap between Japanese traditional CSR and today’s CSR agenda mainly discussed at the global level? In what way have civil society organizations and the government as stakeholders worked with the companies? The chapter delves into these questions.

The original version of the book was revised: For detailed information please see Erratum. The erratum to this chapter is available at 10.1007/978-1-4939-6915-9_11

An erratum to this chapter can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6915-9_11

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Keidanren and the Japan Federation of Employers’ Association merged into Nippon Keidanren in 2002. Thus, Keidanren is referred to as Nippon Keidanren after 2002 in this chapter.

  2. 2.

    See the Council for Better Corporate Citizenship http://www.keidanren.or.jp/CBCC/en/index.html for the detail of the objectives and history.

  3. 3.

    The only 5th version of Keidanren’s Charter of Corporate Behavior released on September 14, 2010 was published in both English and Japanese.

  4. 4.

    However, the number of the certified organizations to ISO 14001 has been decreasing since 2009. See the detailed numbers of each country and region in the ISO survey that offers data at its Web site.

  5. 5.

    The declarations include ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work in 1998 and the ILO’s Tripartite Declaration of Principles Concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy 1977, which was last revised in 2006.

  6. 6.

    EICC was originally found as Electronic Industry Code of Conduct. Currently it is named Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition. See EICC’s Web site at http://www.eiccoalition.org/about/history/.

  7. 7.

    ESG Communication Forum counts and displays with its own editing policy, which identifies reports such as being as an integrated report and disclosing financial and non-financial information inclusively. See its Web site at http://www.esgcf.com/archive/pdf/esgcf_reportlist_150107.pdf (in Japanese).

  8. 8.

    In 2008, The UN Human Rights Council adopted the Protect, Respect, and Remedy Framework, which was proposed by Professor John Ruggie, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises. The framework means that it is the state’s duty to protect human rights, corporations’ responsibility to respect human rights, and stipultates access to remedy for victims of human rights abuse.

  9. 9.

    A caste-like minority group of people among the ethnic Japanese. For details, see http://blhrri.org/blhrri_e/blhrri/buraku.htm.

  10. 10.

    ILO’s core labor standards include freedom of association, elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labor, effective abolition of child labor, and elimination of discrimination in respect to employment and occupation. See the details at http://www.ilo.org/global/standards/lang--en/index.htm.

  11. 11.

    See the details of Hitachi Group Human Rights Policy at http://www.hitachi.com/New/cnews/130524.html.

  12. 12.

    See the details at http://home.jeita.or.jp/mineral/pdf/120823_e.pdf.

  13. 13.

    See the details of how AIAG has addressed the issue of conflict minerals at http://www.aiag.org/staticcontent/committees/workgroup.cfm?FC=CR&grp=WCOC&group=CMWG.

  14. 14.

    Since 2013, the method of data collection has been a sampling survey, so we excluded the data after 2013 in Fig. 3.3.

  15. 15.

    This question was asked to the companies who answered ‘yes’ to the prior question regarding whether the data and/or practices are disclosed to the public.

  16. 16.

    We could have looked at a longer time series, but many questions corresponding to the recent issues have been added since the 2012 survey.

  17. 17.

    The figures from different fiscal years may not indicate actual changes in the ground because the samples and the responding companies varied in different years. However, the figures may be useful to consider or perhaps foresee the trends.

  18. 18.

    See the detail in the NPO Center’s Web site at http://www.jnpoc.ne.jp/en/.

  19. 19.

    See the detail in Hunger Free World’s Web site at http://www.hungerfree.net/english/special/23_4.html.

  20. 20.

    See the details of the Fair Finance Guide Japan at http://fairfinance.jp/ (in Japanese).

  21. 21.

    See the details on Ricoh’s Web site at https://www.ricoh.com/csr/india_edu/.

  22. 22.

    See the details on Ajinomoto’s Web site at https://www.ajinomoto.com/en/activity/csr/ghana/.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CSO Network Japan, Shinjuku, Japan

    Kaori Kuroda

  2. School of Project Design, Miyagi University, Taiwa, Japan

    Yu Ishida

Authors
  1. Kaori Kuroda
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  2. Yu Ishida
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Correspondence to Yu Ishida .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates

    Samiul Hasan

Appendix

Appendix

ISO 26000 core subjects and issues

Core subject: organizational governance

Decision-making processes and structures

Core subject: human rights

Issue 1: due diligence

Issue 2: human rights risk situations

Issue 3: avoidance of complicity

Issue 4: resolving grievances

Issue 5: discrimination and vulnerable groups

Issue 6: civil and political rights

Issue 7: economic, social and cultural rights

Issue 8: fundamental rights at work

Core subject: labour practices

Issue 1: employment and employment relationships

Issue 2: conditions of work and social protection

Issue 3: social dialogue

Issue 4: health and safety at work

Issue 5: human development and training in the workplace

Core subject: the environment

Issue 1: prevention of pollution

Issue 2: sustainable resource use

Issue 3: climate change mitigation and adaptation

Issue 4: protection and restoration of the natural environment

Core subject: fair operating practices

Issue 1: anti-corruption

Issue 2: responsible political involvement

Issue 3: fair competition

issue 4: promoting social responsibility in the sphere of influence

Issue 5: respect for property rights

Core subject: consumer issues

Issue 1: fair marketing, information and contractual practices

Issue 2: protecting consumers’ health and safety

Issue 3: sustainable consumption

Issue 4: consumer service, support, and dispute resolution

Issue 5: consumer data protection and privacy

Issue 6: access to essential services

Issue 7: education and awareness

  1. Source International Organization for Standardization (2010)

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Kuroda, K., Ishida, Y. (2017). CSR in Japan: Toward Integration and Corporate–CSO Partnership. In: Hasan, S. (eds) Corporate Social Responsibility and the Three Sectors in Asia. Nonprofit and Civil Society Studies. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6915-9_3

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