Human Rights

As we realize sustainable growth through Ajinomoto Group Creating Shared Value (ASV), the Ajinomoto Group engages in the SDGs and other efforts related to the international consensus on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies. In doing so, we recognize that all business activities must be premised on respect for human rights. We support international standards for human rights including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and its Follow-up, and the United Nations Global Compact. Further, we have established our own Ajinomoto Group Shared Policy on Human Rights. This policy is based on the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and ensures that as a corporate group that conducts business globally, all of the Ajinomoto Group companies, and officers and employees respect internationally recognized human rights and comply thoroughly with international human rights obligations and related laws and regulations of the countries where we operate. In addition, we encourage our business partners and other related parties (including upstream suppliers) to support this policy and respect human rights, and work together to promote respect for human rights.

Ajinomoto Group policies are approved by the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee before being signed by the president and CEO.

The Ajinomoto Group pursues ESG and sustainability initiatives that include respect for human rights in supply chain, mainly through the Sustainability Committee and Risk Management Committee, a subordinate body of the Executive Committee. The Sustainability Committee and the Sustainability Development Department create roadmaps regarding human rights in supply chain initiatives, offer proposals, and provide support to incorporate sustainability into business plans. These two bodies report to the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors. In addition, the Board of Directors, Executive Committee, and the Sustainability Advisory Council hold discussions on human rights topics as appropriate.

In accordance with the UNGPs and the Group Shared Policy on Human Rights, the Ajinomoto Group engages in dialogue and consultation with third-party experts* on human rights and other stakeholders. In this way, we ensure respect for human rights for all stakeholders (employees, business partners, local communities, customers, etc.) across the Ajinomoto Group value chain, including production and sales across all businesses, as part of our human rights due diligence process. We conduct periodic country-specific human rights risk assessments for raw materials procurement every four year (2014, 2018, 2022).

Our approach to establishing a UNGPs-based management system covering the value chain emphasizes the two aspects: comprehensiveness and depth, as described below. Our main focus is on direct, in-depth dialogue with rights-holders, while our approach to comprehensiveness complements these efforts by thoroughly identifying and understanding risks that cannot be uncovered through depth alone. Through these efforts, we intend to minimize human rights risks in our value chain. We engage in this system while seeking and incorporating external perspectives on an ongoing basis.

The Ajinomoto Group conducts regular human rights risk assessments and related human rights impact assessments as part of our efforts to delve deeper into this issue.
We explore ways to prevent or improve issues related to human rights that we identify through these efforts.

Human rights risk assessment: We investigate and identify human rights risks from a third-party perspective in each country involved in raw material procurement, production, and sales based on Ajinomoto Group business operations (conducted every four years).

Human rights impact assessment: Based on the risks uncovered in the human rights risk assessment, we visit the countries and regions in question to engage in direct on-site dialogues with stakeholders (employees of business partners, rights holders such as local residents, NPOs, etc.) to understand the human rights impact and issues.

Using the Verisk Maplecroft Human Rights Risk Database, we identified and analyzed human rights topics with the advice of an external expert, Caux Round Table Japan (CRT Japan). We identified Thailand (seafood processing and poultry industries) and Brazil (coffee beans and sugarcane molasses) as high-risk countries/regional industries in connection with the Ajinomoto Group's food businesses.
The high-risk matters we identified included occupational health and safety, child labor, and forced labor.

As with the first assessment, we used the Verisk Maplecroft Human Rights Risk Database and reflected advice from CRT Japan. Having examined high-risk countries and regions where the Ajinomoto Group engages in the food business, we identified Southeast Asia and Brazil as high-risk countries for the food industry. High-risk issue^*1 identified included occupational health and safety, child labor, modern slavery (forced labor), and discrimination. Additionally, we identified the following risks based on evaluations of priority raw material^*2 sourced by the Ajinomoto Group. Based on these results, the Ajinomoto Group held discussions with external experts and identified sugarcane molasses in Indonesia and coffee beans in Vietnam as industries and countries with high human rights risks. Human rights impact assessments in these areas are currently in progress.

*1 Risks assessed: child labor, decent wages, appropriate working hours, discrimination, freedom of association, modern slavery, occupational health and safety, and land grabbing
*2 We prioritized the following five raw materials in our human rights risks assessments.

The Ajinomoto Group established the Group Shared Policy for Suppliers, which describes seven expectations of suppliers necessary to fulfill our corporate responsibility, social responsibility, and contributions to a sustainable society. In addition, our Guidelines for Group Shared Policy for Suppliers states clear, specific actions for suppliers to take under two categories:

• [Mandatory]: Actions required for all suppliers
• [Developmental]: Matters encouraged for suppliers

Through these efforts, we avoid causing or encouraging adverse impacts on human rights based on the activities of companies and organizations with which the Ajinomoto Group has business relationships. We deal with any such impacts should they occur. We also seek to prevent or mitigate adverse impacts on human rights linked directly to Ajinomoto Group operations, products, or services conducted through business relationships, even if not contributing to such impacts.

QAPS is an evaluation chart that surveys (in questionnaire format) whether specific practices are in place based on requirements for suppliers in accordance with the Guidelines for Group Shared Policy for Suppliers. The questionnaire consists of 86 items and covers our efforts to address human rights due diligence as required by ILO and other global standards. We rate the overall implementation status of the requirements at suppliers on a 5-point scale based on the responses. Another purpose of this questionnaire is to encourage suppliers to understand their own human rights risks and explore ways to correct and make improvements. When we identify a supplier as high-risk, the Ajinomoto Group engages in dialogue with the said supplier, providing support to prevent and improve human rights issues.

In 2022, we began surveying supplier compliance with the Guidelines for Group Shared Policy for Suppliers. Given the business environment of the Ajinomoto Group, we decided to develop the questionnaire for our business partners in stages. The fiscal 2022 survey targeted mainly primary purchasers of food ingredients and packaging materials. Of the 998 companies surveyed, 938 responded. (92% response rate)

〈Results〉

• Overview
  We confirmed that 53% of our suppliers are fully compliant with the mandatory requirements. Meanwhile, it appears there is room for improvement in handling high-risk items among 22% of suppliers.

In addition, we confirmed the status of compliance with high-risk items for the 22% of suppliers indicating room for improvement in compliance with high-risk items. The results showed that the rate of non-implementation was particularly high for identifying human rights risks, and prohibition of child labor among human rights-related high-risk items.

〈Feedback of Results and Initiatives for Improvement〉

We sent a summary report of the Questionnaire for Ajinomoto Group Shared Policy for Suppliers to all suppliers who responded to our questionnaire. The report indicated the results of the questionnaire and individual risks at the company in question. In December 2023, we held a briefing session for related business partners to report and share the questionnaire results and exchange opinions. In the future, we intend to conduct individual dialogues with suppliers indicating room for improvement in high-risk items, offering support for correction and improvement. Through these initiatives, we work together with business partners in ESG initiatives, helping suppliers recognize their own strengths, weaknesses, and steps to improve.

In 2020, we voiced our support for the Tokyo Declaration 2020 on Responsible Acceptance of Foreign Workers in Japan formulated by the Global Alliance for Sustainable Supply Chain (ASSC) regarding the recruitment of foreign workers under Technical Intern Training Program or those with Specified Skilled Worker visa, and we have requested that our suppliers create an environment in which foreign workers can be active in their work. In fiscal 2021, we participated in the development of the Responsible Employment Guidelines for Migrant Workers as Technical Intern Trainees and Specified Skilled Workers in Japan as a member of the CGF Social Sustainability Working Group.
Based on these guidelines, we visited and held dialogues with supervising organizations and registered support organizations related to the technical intern trainees employed by domestic Ajinomoto Group companies. Through these efforts, we confirm that technical intern trainees and specified skilled workers are appropriately paid and provided support in their work and daily life.

We also regularly visit sites where foreign workers are employed, mainly in domestic Ajinomoto Group companies, to understand and confirm working and housing conditions. We regularly hold direct dialogues with foreign workers and other on-site employees with responsibility for foreign workers to identify and remedy human rights risks.

From time to time, the Ajinomoto Group holds training and briefing sessions on business and human rights for directors, employees, and business partners.

The Ajinomoto Group adheres to human rights laws and regulations in each country as we develop our business globally.

The Ajinomoto Group has disclosed the following statement from related local subsidiary regarding the California Transparency in Supply Chains Acts of 2010, which was enacted in California, USA.

• Ajinomoto Foods North America, Inc.
  CA TSCA Notice - Ajinomoto Foods

The Ajinomoto Group holds regular dialogues with human rights experts and stakeholders, sharing and communicating our initiatives externally as case studies to further our efforts to respect human rights and to obtain expert opinions.

The Ajinomoto Group established several consultation and reporting offices within and outside the group to promptly and appropriately address damage resulting from adverse human rights impacts. Each consultation office strictly protects whistleblower’s privacy, and related departments work together to appropriately address and resolve the situation.

This is an internal whistle-blowing hotline for Ajinomoto Group employees (regular, part-time, and temporary employees, etc.) and executives.
Considering the ease of access for people of many nationalities working at group companies, in 2023 we unified our traditional domestic and global counters, enabling access in 22 languages.
The whistleblower can choose between real name and anonymity.
Business Conduct Committee of Ajinomoto Co., Inc. is responsible for conducting surveys and responding in cooperation with related organizations.

The Ajinomoto Group established the Supplier Hotline in fiscal 2018 as a contact point for reporting from suppliers. The hotline is designed to detect and correct suspected violations of laws and deviations from the Ajinomoto Group Policy (AGP) by Ajinomoto Group executives or employees.

The Ajinomoto Group has been participating in an advisory capacity since the 2020 establishment of the Japan Platform for Migrant Workers toward Responsible and Inclusive Society (JP-MIRAI) created by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) together with other stakeholders including companies, lawyers, and NGOs. This aims to resolve issues faced by foreign workers undergoing technical training and those with special skills. In fiscal 2022, we participated in the Consultation and Relief Pilot Project for Migrant Workers launched by JP-MIRAI. Moving forward, we intend to expand this system to cover the whole supply chain and utilize it in the early detection of issues with labor and human rights.