SAKATA INX Group Human Rights Policy has been established based on the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights that was endorsed by the United Nations Human Rights Council. We take the initiative to respect human rights. As a member of society, we recognize the importance of respect for human rights, and views this policy as the highest level of rules for human rights based on our Corporate Philosophy, Sustainability Basic Policy, and Ethical Code of Conduct. The SAKATA INX Group prohibits unfair discrimination and infringement of human rights on the basis of nationality, race, beliefs, religion, gender, disability, or for any other reason.
We shall continue to respect the human rights of our range of stakeholders and be a company that is fair and trusted by society, and by doing so, we will contribute to the achievement of a sustainable society.
Our Commitment to Respect for Human Rights
SAKATA INX Group has been contributing to the creation of communication culture for more than 120 years since its foundation in 1896. With its strengths in environmentally friendly products and high value-added products, we have actively developed our business globally, and is now one of the world's leading comprehensive ink manufacturers. We deliver our products to many countries and regions with global bases of production and sales. In addition, SAKATA INX group has more than 4,800 employees of various nationalities and ethnicities. As a company with such global reach and diversity, we respect the human rights of our employees and other stakeholders in order to achieve a society in line with the SDGs (United Nations Sustainable Development Goals).
In the conduct of our business, we constantly keep eyes on the occurrence of human rights risks, and if negative impacts occur, we work to prevent and mitigate them, and take appropriate action to remedy and redress them. We recognize that respect for human rights is an important responsibility of a responsible company.
In our long-term strategic vision, SAKATA INX VISION 2030, our vision is to "Create and Innovate, Care for the Earth, Color for Life." Each employee will create social values. As key issues, materiality, to realize these value in promoting sustainable initiatives, we have declared respect for human rights and the promotion of DE&I to create a workplace and organizational culture that is rewarding to work in.
Our purpose of existence is "Develop a communication culture that makes people's lives more enjoyable". We believe it is important to make people's lives comfortable and to contribute to society by providing products, goods and services that help solve various social issues and problems facing the global environment.
The corporate philosophy "Mind within the Mind" ends with the statement "We pledge to put the spirit of "We Love You" to everything we do", which refers to the spirit of respect for human rights of caring for each other. We will contribute to the realization of the SDGs, while respecting human rights and striving to ensure safe and peaceful life.
In February 2022, we expressed our support for The Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact, the world's largest initiative and universal principles on human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption. We support and respect various international norms relating to human rights and will promote initiatives to respect human rights.
We believe that it is very important to express the notion of "We Love You" to our actions for all stakeholders with respect to human rights and clearly convey such stance to society. We will continue to implement activities to realize a sustainable society.
Representative Director, President & CEO
SAKATAINX CORPORATION
Human Rights Policy
SAKATA INX Group promotes business activities in consideration of the human rights of various stakeholders including customers, suppliers, business partners, communities, employees, etc. based on the "SAKATA INX Group Human Rights Policy." Our group polices including the human rights policy are translated in 12 languages. We are strengthening our commitment globally.
Implementing Human Rights Due Diligence
Based on the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, SAKATA INX Group will work to fulfill the responsibility to respect human rights as a company by identifying, assessing, preventing, reducing and taking corrective measures.
Human Rights Due Diligence Process
SAKATA INX Group works to identify and assess potential human rights risks through the following human rights due diligence process. To ensure respect for the human rights of various stakeholders affected by our business activities, we take the initiative to reduce risks.
Important Human Rights issues
We have mapped human rights issues, Human Rights Risk Mapping, that are at risk of adverse impacts due to our business activities. We identified eight important human rights issues – areas that we should focus to reduce potentail human rights. Based on the human rights due diligence process, we have identified and evaluated the actual and potential human rights impacts of these risks.
8 important human rights issues
- Health and Safety
- Affect on local communities
- Forced labor
- Work hours
- Harassment
- Discrimination
- Bribery and Corruption
- Infectious disease control
Our initiatives for respect to human rights
(1) Surveys for domestic employees
As part of the assessment to identify potential human rights risks, we conduct surveys, Human rights assessment questionnaires, to our domestic group employees (including part-time and temporary staffs and overseas representatives).
(2) Surveys for our overseas locations
We conduct surveys to our overseas top managament by using Global Compact Network Japan's Sustainable/CSR Procurement Self-Assessment Questionnaire with our original questions.
(3) Responsible supply chain
We conduct surveys questions mainly to our domestic suppliers which amounts to 90% of the volume we purchase by using Global Compact Network Japan's Sustainable/CSR Procurement Self-Assessment Questionnaire with our original questions.
We also hold dialogues for corrections with suppliers that we find nessary to improve their score in the self-assessment. We use Sedex to disclose information. The platform provided by Sedex includes a set of questions based on Labor, Health & Safety, Environment, Business Ethics in the supply chain.
(4) Endorsement of My Declaration of Human Rights
We endorsed the My Declaration of Human Rights project promoted by the Ministry of Justice, and and published our own declaration.
My Declaration of Human Rights is an initiative that aims to realize a society in which everyone respects human rights by having companies, organizations and individuals declare their respect for human rights in practice.
(5) Freedom of association and Collective bargaining
We comply with laws and regulations including basic labor law, etc., and respect freedom of association and collective bargaining. The union and management work together to improve working environment and to enhance employee benefits, and also take the initiative to develop next generation human resources that will lead SAKATA INX Group. The union and management council is held at the central and each branch several times a year. The decisions made are applied to all employees.
(6) Human rights education
We have sent the video message globally from the President & CEO of SAKATA INX CORPORATION to our employees regarding our commitment to respect for human rights video message. We conduct explanatory meetings and provide e-learning to our employees. We will continue to implement various human rights education and work to spread the mind of respect for human rights.
(7) External activities
We a member of the human rights education and human rights due diligence (HRDD) subcomittee at Global Compact Network Japan.
(8) Prevention of Harassment
In order to ensure that employees are respected as individuals and a good working environment for the execution of work is maintained, we have established a Harassment Prevention Committee alongside Harassment Prevention Regulations and a consultation service. The rules set out that due consideration must be given to the dignity, human rights, and privacy of the involved person when providing consultations and handling complaints.
We provide a consultation service that any stakeholder can use. If you become aware of any compliance violation by a party related to SAKATA INX, or suspect there may have been a violation, please report it using the contact information below. Personal information provided will be strictly managed and will not be used for any purposes other than for making inquiries or responding to the relevant individual.