New research has found that most Japanese apparel companies fall short on human rights issues. Business & Human Rights Resource Centre and Human Rights Now, an international human rights NGO based in Japan, surveyed the human rights policies and practices of the top 62 apparel companies operating in Japan.

The survey found that a small number of leading companies have policies and procedures in place to prevent and remedy negative impacts their business activities may have on human rights. Aside from that small group, however, most companies, it was found, are yet to take adequate measures – for example, of the 21 that responded, nine still do not have human rights policies that make concrete reference to international human rights standards.

Several companies have no procedure for remedying human rights abuses, and of those that do, most provide for them only in Japanese. Only four companies that responded to the survey have a remedy procedure accessible in languages other than Japanese.

Of the 21 companies that responded, 12 companies have a human rights policy or procurement guidelines in line with international standards. Among these are Fast Retailing, Gap, H&M, adidas, Asics and Patagonia. On the positive side, several companies stated they have started strengthening their human rights measures, at least partially because of the survey.