Human Rights

We will prevent and correct human rights issues throughout the value chain and create a safe and secure working environment with our business partners. And we will strive to raise awareness of human rights throughout the Group and promote initiatives to respect the human rights of our employees.

Kirin Group has established a policy on human rights and strives to comply with it.

We ensure that our employees thoroughly understand respect for human rights, and raise awareness of human rights throughout the Group.

We respect the human rights of all stakeholders and strive to identify, prevent, and mitigate human rights risks, while implementing appropriate corrective measures in a prioritized manner. In accordance with the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, endorsed by the United Nations Human Rights Council, Kirin Group has begun carrying out human rights due diligence. This is a continuous process based on our commitment to ensure respect for human rights (Kirin Group Human Rights Policy) and includes steps from identifying human rights issues in Kirin Group’s value chain and planning and implementing corrective action to monitoring, disclosing information, and communicating with external stakeholders. We will carry out this process as a cycle and work toward ensuring respect for human rights and realizing sustainable business.

while implementing appropriate corrective measures in a prioritized manner.

It is impossible to completely eliminate human rights risks in the course of business activities. Therefore, the Kirin Group believes it is important to continuously conduct human rights due diligence, as well as have complaint handling mechanisms and access to remedies, which allow us to listen to the voices of stakeholders who are negatively affected through its business activities and learn about situations and respond to human rights risks.

We have established reporting channels for human rights and other compliance issues for all stakeholders, including not only our employees but also our business partners throughout the value chain. When we receive a complaint, the responsible department conducts an investigation, considers remedial measures, and requests corrective action from the relevant departments. Serious incidents are brought before the Business and Human Rights Committee , where they are examined from the perspectives of business risk and the vulnerable people who are negatively affected.

In addition, we are a member of the Japan Business and Human Rights Dialogue and Remedies Mechanism (JaCER) and utilize its engagement and remedy platform for accepting complaints and reports related to human rights risks from all stakeholders. By using a third party, we ensure fairness and transparency in the complaint handling process. When accepting reports, we ensure the anonymity of the reporter and the confidentiality of the report.

*Information on reports made through JaCER is disclosed regularly on the JaCER website.

The employee hotline consists of an internal hotline, which is operated by internal personnel, and an external hotline, which is operated by a third party. In addition, overseas group companies have their own hotlines and a global hotline, which was established for employees of overseas group companies to report issues in their own languages.

Both the domestic hotline and global hotline are posted on the internal intranet, and we raise awareness of the reporting channels through annual compliance training and other opportunities.

Internal

External

Engagement with stakeholders is essential to promoting human rights initiatives through our business. We engage in ongoing dialogue with a wide range of stakeholders on our human rights initiative updates and various human rights issues.

In reviewing our human rights policy, we exchanged opinions with human rights experts in their respective areas of expertise and with the relevant officers. The opinions of the human rights experts were received and incorporated into this policy. The opinions are listed below.

The Kirin Group received advice from its stakeholders, including influential human rights activists and intellectuals, and incorporated that advice in its human rights policy. The following are some examples of that feedback.