Thank you for your continued understanding and support for ASSC’s activities.

We are pleased to announce the release of “ASSC Special Program for COVID-19 Assessment in Supply Chain” as follows.

Please see the program site：

「Announcement: the Release of “ASSC Special Program for COVID-19 Assessment in Supply Chain”」

(sorry currently only Japanese ver. if you need English ver., please contact to “survey_covid-19@g-assc.org” )

The recent social impact of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to spread. We are also concerned about the sustainability of a company’s supply chain and the health and safety aspects of many workers in the supply chain. We hope that this situation will settle as soon as possible, but we believes that business enterprises can positively play a role to take action against the situation to understand the current impact on the supply chain and avoid serious risks from both business and human rights perspectives.

As a part of this, ASSC will start a special program called “ASSC Special Program for COVID-19 Assessment in Supply Chain” from today. This program is intended for business enterprises to carry out a simplified assessment of suppliers in order to understand the impact of COVID-19 on the company’s supply chain and identify the measures required in the supply chain.

This program is a simple 10-question web questionnaire developed by ASSC with reference to guidelines and reports from international organizations and NGOs. This consists of various questionaire  to know the impact of COVID-19 on suppliers (respondents), it’s operational status under the current situation, occupational health and safety, workers’ rights, discrimination, and privacy protection. (The questionnaire content may be updated depending on the implementation status.)

It’s easy to use. (1) After applying from the “Application Form” on the special page above, (2) Receive the “Response URL” sent from ASSC, and (3) Send the “Response URL” directly from the person in charge to each supplier by e-mail.

The aggregated results will be provided free of charge as a “Summary Report” that does not include the response information of each supplier to which the questionnaire is sent. We will provide it for a fee(please contact us for further detail). (For details and samples to be delivered, please see the special page.)

In addition, regarding the implementation status of this questionnaire, we plan to aggregate and analyze it in a form that could not identify the respondents for the purpose of identifying the troubles of both employers and workers in the supply chain of the enterprises, and of finding out necessary information they might need and  possible measures from buyer side, etc. We will share there information on the up-coming special page at ASSC website (the special page will be announced on the website as soon as it is ready).

We hope you will take this opportunity to utilize and cooperate with this program to help us understand and respond to the impact of COVID-19 on your own supply chain.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this matter, please feel free to contact us by e-mail below.

-Contact-
The Global Alliance for Sustainable Supply Chain
e-mail: survey_covid-19@g-assc.org
TEL: 044-982-1967
(Contact person in charge: Shoto Mori)

The Global Alliance for Sustainable Supply Chain(ASSC) officially announce that the Tokyo Declaration on the Responsible Acceptance of Foreign Workers in Japan (ASSC Tokyo Declaration 2020）is published today.

“the Tokyo Declaration on the Responsible Acceptance of Foreign Workers in Japan 2020″（English Ver.）

This Declaration was formulated as part of the results of the ASSC Foreign Workers Roundtable, which has been accredited by the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games as its national participation program.

The number of foreign workers in Japan continues to increase as the movement of people worldwide also grow. This is due to the declining workforce in Japan, but more and more foreigners are playing an active role in the industries that support people’s lives in Japan, such as textiles, food, and construction.

On the other hand, there have been frequent reports of human rights and labour issues such as harassment, discrimination, unpaid wages, and other unfair treatment at workplaces and the forfeiture of passports for foreign workers in Japan. It has been criticized as a “modern slave” by foreign media and others.

Against this background, ASSC established the “Foreign Workers Roundtable” (hereinafter referred to as the Roundtable) in October 2018. A total of eight meetings were held with the aim of discussing the actions necessary for Japan to become a “nation chosen by foreign workers” with various related organizations. See our 1st activity report(Japanese Only, English ver. is coming soon).

This Declaration aims to serve as a guideline for creating an environment where foreigners working in Japan can work in a decent mannar. Improvement of these environment is an urgent issue for Japan as the acceptance of foreign workers will further expands there, and at the same time, it is also an important issue for the coutnry to make an effort on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the international community.

This Declaration provides 13 requirements that all interested parties practice the responsible acceptance of foreign workers in Japan. While taking into account various domestic systems, we seek to fully comply with the Dhaka Principles for migration with dignity, which are international norms on the responsible recruitment of migrant workers, and the norms and articles of international organizations such as the IOM and ILO.

ASSC will work with companies, government agencies and NPOs / NGOs who share the same goals to take concrete actions while working to spread this Declaration. As the first step, an online seminar will be held from 14:00 on Wednesday, April 15(Japanese language only), to explain the details of this declaration and how to use it (the details will be announced separately).

We hope that any interested organizations will support this Declaration and cooperate in activities to realize the Declaration in order for Japan to become a “nation chosen by foreign workers”.

* Related information on this matter and companies / organizations who support this Declaration will be updated on the Roundtable page of our website at any time.

* We are looking for companies and organizations who can support this declaration. Please contact info@g-assc.org if you are interested.