Respect for Human Rights

Human rights are inherent to all people regardless of race, gender, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion or other status, and all people have these rights without discrimination.

The Kuraray Group has a responsibility to respect these rights in its business activities and to promote a healthy and mutually respectful environment for all employees, including executives, business partners and others directly involved in its business.

We believe that respect for human rights is a core element of corporate responsibility. Respect for human rights is reflected in the Kuraray Corporate Statements and the Kuraray Group Code of Conduct. These principles are based on internationally recognized human rights standards, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Declaration of the International Labor Organization on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.

In accordance with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, we commit to respecting human rights in order to fulfill our responsibility to prevent and mitigate human rights violations and provide remedies in the event that such violations do occur.

We respect human rights in the Kuraray Group's business activities and value chain, and are committed to the elimination of child labor, prohibition of forced labor, prohibition of all forms of discrimination, freedom of association, and a safe and healthy working environment. We also encourage our suppliers and other business partners to comply with the principles set forth in this policy and implement appropriate processes to respect human rights.

We comply with laws and regulations, and respect human rights in accordance with international norms without violating local laws where internationally recognized human rights are restricted by local laws.

We continuously conduct appropriate due diligence to identify and mitigate the risks and impacts of human rights violations in our business activities in order to fulfill the Kuraray Group's responsibility to respect human rights. Depending on the results of our assessment of the risks of human rights violations, we reinforce compliance with this policy by our business partners.

In monitoring respect for human rights in our business activities, we conduct periodic risk assessments and reviews of our business activities to confirm compliance with this policy, and we disclose periodically the status of our efforts to respect human rights.

We continuously work to strengthen our grievance mechanisms so that internal and external stakeholders can report possible human rights violations or non-compliance. If we cause negative human rights impacts through our business activities, we strive to rectify the deficiencies by utilizing internal and external expertise. We also implement corrective measures to prevent similar violations from recurring.