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Respect for Human Rights and Labor

Initiatives relating to human rights

Formulation of a human rights policy

Considering the growing social demand for companies to respect human rights, Japan Post Group formulated the Japan Post Group Human Rights Policy in April 2019 based on the United Nations (UN) Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and other concepts.
Through this policy, we demonstrate our respect for human rights, and through building a framework for human rights due diligence and identifying negative impacts on human rights, we promote human rights awareness activities to foster a sense of human rights among all employees. We also support the UN Children's Rights and Business Principles and will promote the realization of children's rights. Human rights awareness activities will be reviewed periodically through deliberations by the Sustainability Committee, taking into account changes in corporate activities and the business environment.

The Group's structure for promoting human rights awareness

Dialogue with outside experts

We aim to examine initiatives carefully so that the whole company can understand the importance of sustainability management as viewed by senior management, while considering the importance of business and human rights, taking into account advice from experts, arranging a structure for promoting initiatives, and having a basic concept and policy.

Implementing human rights due diligence

The Japan Post Group undertakes the following human rights due diligence process in order to respect the human rights of persons who are impacted by its business activities.

*Note: In-house seminars on business and human rights are held for all employees of Japan Post Holdings, the Group's holding company, by inviting a lecturer from the Tokyo Legal Affairs Bureau.

Human Rights Impact Assessment

With one of the largest workforces in Japan, the Japan Post Group operates a variety of businesses, including postal services, logistics, banking, and insurance, through about 24,000 post offices nationwide. We identify priority issues by mapping the latent and overt human rights risks associated with our businesses.
In identifying priority issues, we draw on various guidelines and external literature reviews,*1 employee awareness questionnaire on business and human rights,*2 assessment surveys of major subsidiaries,*3 and the expertise of external consultants.

The priority issues to which the Group should pay particular attention are as follows.
Stakeholder Priority issue
Employee Insufficient or unpaid wages; living wage
Excessive or unreasonable working hours
Power harassment and sexual harassment
Occupational health and safety
Discrimination (including gender-related human rights issues)
Customer Privacy rights
Consumer safety and right to know
Supplier Forced labor ･ Human trafficking
Child labor
Recipient of investment/financing Forced labor ･ Human trafficking
Child labor
Rights of indigenous people and local residents

We will manage and review the human rights issues of particular concern to us through monitoring, etc. We will also work to mitigate risks related to human rights issues other than those listed above.

*1 Various guidelines and external literature reviews

  1. ■
    Referenced literature:
  2. ・
    "Report on the Research and Study on Business and Human Rights (March 2021)." The Ministry of Justice
  3. ・
    "Handbook for Management that Respects Human Rights (December 2021)." Keidanren
  4. ・
    "Human Rights Issues by Sector v.10 (March 2022)." Caux Round Table Japan (CRT Japan)
  5. ・
    "Human Rights Guidance Tool/Services (2014)." UNEP FI
  6. ・
    "10 Human Rights Priorities for the Financial Sector (2017)." BSR
  7. ・
    "10 Human Rights Priorities for the Transport and Logistics Sector (2017)." BSR
　
■Results of external literature reviews (human rights issue items by business area):
Human rights issues UNFPFI
(Services)		 BSR
(Finance)		 BSR
(Transport
and logistics)		 CRT
(Logistics
and transport)
(1) Insufficient or unpaid wages; living wage ✔ ✔ ✔
(2) Excessive or unreasonable working hours ✔ ✔ ✔
(3) Occupational safety and health ✔ ✔
(4) Right to social security
(5) Power harassment
(6) Sexual harassment
(7) Maternity/paternity harassment
(8) Nursing care harassment
(9) Forced labor ✔ ✔ ✔
(10) Freedom of change of residence
(11) Freedom of association ✔
(12) Rights of foreign workers ✔ ✔
(13) Child labor ✔ ✔
(14) Human rights issues related to technology and AI ✔ ✔
(15) Privacy rights ✔ ✔
(16) Consumer safety and right to know ✔ ✔
(17) Discrimination ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
(18) Gender-related human rights issues ✔ ✔ ✔
(19) Freedom of expression
(20) Rights of indigenous people and local residents ✔ ✔
(21) Human rights issues related to the environment and climate change ✔ ✔
(22) Intellectual property rights
(23) Bribery and corruption ✔ ✔ ✔
(24) Human rights issues in the supply chain ✔ ✔ ✔
(25) Right of access to redress ✔ ✔

*2 Employee awareness questionnaire on business and human rights (conducted in FY2022)

  1. ■
    Target company: Japan Post Holdings
  1. ■
    Question:
  2.   
    Choose the top three issues that are highly likely to become priority human rights issues in the business activities of the Japan Post Group.
  3.   
    (To be chosen from 25 human rights risks listed in the "Report on the Research and Study on Business and Human Rights (March 2021)" by the Ministry of Justice.)
  1. ■
    Number of respondents: 965 (Response rate: approx. 90%)

*3 Outline of assessment survey

  1. ■
    Target companies:
  2. ・
    Japan Post Holdings
  3. ・
    Japan Post Co., Ltd.
  4. ・
    Japan Post Bank Co., Ltd.
  5. ・
    Japan Post Insurance Co., Ltd.
  1. ■
    Survey method:
  2. I.
    Identify human rights issues expected in the Group's business areas from external literature, etc.
  3. II.
    For the identified human rights issues, conduct a survey of each company on the occurrence or non-occurrence of the issue and preventive/corrective actions using an interview sheet.
  4. III.
    Integrate the survey results for each company and identify the human rights issues to which the Group should pay particular attention.
(Reference) Interview sheet (excerpt)

Preventive and Corrective Actions

Preventive and Corrective Actions The following shows the implementation of preventive and corrective measures against the negative impact of apparent and latent risks relating to human rights. We will review and enhance activities according to the situation of the assessed impact on human rights.

Stakeholder Human rights issues Main examples of preventive and corrective actions
Education and training Internal environment and systems
Employee Insufficient or unpaid wages; living wage
  • New employee training, training upon promotion by job level
    We provide working hour management training to employees upon hire or promotion (by job level).
  • Ensuring appropriate working conditions
    We have established a salary system for employees above the minimum wage to comply with labor-related laws and regulations and to ensure stability of livelihood.
Excessive or unreasonable working hours
  • New employee training, training upon promotion by job level
    We provide working hour management training to employees upon hire or promotion (by job level).
  • Confirmation of understanding (twice a year)
    Employees conduct a self-diagnosis of their understanding of proper working hour management.
  • Initiatives to create friendly workplaces for employees
    We help balance work with childcare, nursing care, and illness, realize personnel systems that address environmental changes, reduce overtime, and promote telework.
Power harassment and sexual harassment
  • Harassment prevention training
    New employee training, training upon promotion by job level We provide human rights awareness and harassment prevention training to employees upon hire or promotion (by job level).
  • Initiatives to eradicate harassment
    We disseminate top management messages on harassment, educate and raise awareness of harassment among all employees, train managers using case studies, and distribute booklets.
    *Note: We ensure whistleblower protection, accept consultation requests through a "one-stop consultation and whistleblowing platform," and have established a structure in which a manager with sufficient investigative skills conducts investigations.
Occupational health and safety
  • Self-care/line-care training
    We work with occupational health staff to provide mental health training to all employees each year.
  • Education and training on transportation safety (an initiative of Japan Post Co., Ltd.)
  1. (1)
    Leadership training at the head office, branch offices, and post offices (only those with a postal operations organization)
  2. (2)
    Safety training for post office managers
  3. (3)
    Training of safe driving instructors for motorcycles and vans
  4. (4)
    Accident/violator training
  5. (5)
    Driving record certificates, aptitude tests, and education through attended/accompanied instruction
  6. (6)
    Team-based accident case study groups using accident information bulletins
  7. (7)
    New employee training and mid-career employee training
  8. (8)
    Safety considerations for elderly drivers
  9. (9)
    Education using data detected by drive recorders or telematics
  • Promotion of health management
    We have established the Japan Post Group Health Management Promotion System, formulated the Japan Post Group Declaration on Health, are reducing long working hours, providing health guidance to prevent and manage lifestyle-related diseases, and providing mental health care.
  • Occupational health and safety management system
    To prevent occupational accidents, prevent damage to employees' health, and create a comfortable workplace environment, we comply with occupational health and safety laws and other related laws and regulations, and implement initiatives to ensure employees' safety and to maintain and improve their health.
  • Payment of workers' compensation additional benefits
    We provide additional benefits when employees receive compensation under the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act for injury, illness, disability or death resulting from an accident at work or while commuting.
  • Establishment of a consultation service for mental and physical health
    For counseling on life- and work-related concerns and anxieties, we have established a mental and physical counseling desk at health management facilities nationwide, a telephone counseling service at the Japan Post Mutual Aid Association, and a counseling service outsourced to an external specialist company.
Discrimination (including gender-related human rights issues)
  • Diversity reinforcement month (once a year)
    We designate a month each year to raise employee awareness of diversity-related systems and initiatives and to foster a workplace culture that facilitates the use of these systems.
  • Diversity-related seminars
    We hold a seminar several times a year to foster awareness of respect for diverse values and mutual recognition.
  • Promoting the active participation of women
    We have set a target for the percentage of female managers among head office managers, are reducing overtime, developing a system to help balance work and childcare, raising awareness through manager seminars to create a workplace culture where employees can play an active role regardless of gender, and providing training to promote career awareness among female employees.
  • Addressing sexual diversity
    We provide awareness-raising seminars conducted by LGBT persons, have established the Japan Post Group Human Rights Policy, issue ALLY stickers, sponsor Tokyo Rainbow Pride, and extend various benefits to same-sex partners (e.g., dependent allowance, special leave for employee weddings and funerals, caregiver leave).
  • Promoting the employment of persons with disabilities
    We proactively recruit persons with disabilities, establish and develop workplace environments aimed at job retention, establish and proactively utilize special subsidiary companies, and accept interns and employ persons from special needs schools.
Customer Privacy rights
  • Cybersecurity-related education and training
    We implement initiatives to raise cybersecurity awareness among executives and employees, such as conducting quarterly information security self-inspections.
  • Japan Post Group Information Security Declaration
    To help customers use our services with confidence, we protect and securely manage our customers' valuable information from leakage and loss due to unauthorized access, and from service disruptions caused by accidents and natural disasters.
Consumer safety and right to know
  • Employee training
    With the aim of realizing customer-oriented sales activities, we have developed a basic policy and annual plan for sales training and provide training to improve employees' knowledge and skills according to the employee's roles.
  • Establishment of the Japan Post Group Basic Policy for Customer-Oriented Business Operations
    In accordance with the Policy, we take customer feedback seriously and make efforts to become a corporate group that is truly trusted by customers.
  • Establishment of the Japan Post Group Customer Satisfaction Promotion Liaison Meeting
    At the Liaison Meeting, customer feedback directed to Group companies, their basic policies for customer-oriented business operations and their implementation status, best practices, current and future issues, and measures to address them are shared.
Supplier Forced labor
  • Establishment of "Japan Post Group's Approach to Procurement Activity"
    Since 2018, the Group has endorsed the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact in the four areas of human rights, labor, the environment, and anti-corruption.
    With respect to the matters listed in the above policy, we have established the "Japan Post Group CSR Procurement Guidelines," which specify the initiatives required of our suppliers, and we promote procurement activities that take into account social responsibilities such as human rights, labor standards, and the environment throughout our supply chain.
Child labor
Recipient of investment/financing Forced labor Related disclosures
Child labor
Rights of indigenous people and local residents
Other
  • Prevention of child and forced labor
    We endorse the UN's Children's Rights and Business Principles and promote the realization of children's rights. We verify the age of our employees at the time of hiring and have established work regulations that guarantee the freedom of resignation.
    *Note: We hire employees on the basis of applications from job seekers, indicate working conditions in advance by issuing a notice of working conditions upon hire, and guarantee freedom of resignation to prevent forced labor against the employee's will by clearly stating in the work regulations that employees are considered to have resigned 14 days after submitting their resignation request.

Implementation of monitoring of initiatives

The following shows monitoring of the risks related to human rights. We will review monitoring items and methods according to the status shown by the assessment of the impact on human rights.

  • Employee and workplace environment surveys
    • Human rights and harassment check (twice a year)
    • Stress Checks at all business locations (once a year)
    • Improvements to workplace environment by inviting employees to give examples of near misses at business locations
    • Initiatives to correct excessive overtime
      Checking the number of hours of overtime at each department (monthly), monitoring of working hours and others on site (as necessary), managing working hours by checking IC cards (monthly)
    • Fatigue Checks, encouragement of meetings with industrial physician (for employees with 80 hours or more of overtime per month; monthly)
    • Mental disorder detection program (for employees working more than 80 hours of overtime per month and employees who have transferred from outside the company; monthly)
  • Exchanging opinions with the labor union
    • Holding a subcommittee meeting with the labor union to discuss work-life balance and other matters (once to twice a year)
    • Exchanging opinions with the branches of the labor union on such matters as actual overtime hours once every two months
    • Holding a subcommittee meeting with the labor union to discuss gender equality and other matters (once to twice a year).
  • Supply chain management
    • Co-Creation in Supply Chain
      In modern Supply Chain, we are required to address many issues such as respecting human rights, environmentally friendly and prevention of corruption to engage in CSR/Sustainable procurement. Business enterprises are increasingly expected to promote CSR/Sustainable procurement initiatives in accordance with the “Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights” and the “Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” that are established by the United Nations
      The Japan Post Group is committed to procurement activities for environmentally friendly and coexistence with local communities based on “Japan Post Group’s Approach to Procurement Activity” and “Japan Post Group CSR/Sustainable Procurement Guideline” in collaboration with our suppliers and complies with the Ten principles of the United Nations Global Compact.
      As part of our Procurement activities, Japan Post holdings conducts the survey using the “CSR/Sustainable Procurement Self-Assessment Questionnaire” since 2019, assesses risks related to compliance, environmental, human rights, labor, quality and safety, and anti-bribery issues, and strives to identify potential risks in supply chain. Even if some issues are revealed by the survey result, we will not suspend or terminate the transaction suddenly. We seek to promote CSR/Sustainable activities with our suppliers through bidirectional communication. In 2023, we revised questions and scoring allocation of the “CSR/Sustainable Procurement Self-Assessment Questionnaire” considering the results of past surveys or global situation. We have formed some groups by industry and have been making efforts to identify specific risks of each group.
      In addition, we also conduct a survey on human rights protection for a new supplier and confirm their initiatives concerning human rights, thereby verifying human rights risks.
      In 2024, we also added contents related to human rights protection in the CSR clause that is added to our standard contract in 2021 for the purpose of promoting CSR/Sustainable procurement throughout supply chain and designated it as the CSR and human rights clause. We clarified that we would move forward with our initiatives to respect human rights with all our suppliers besides CSR/Sustainable procurement.
      Furthermore, we actively work on anti-bribery initiatives such as background checks to identify any links to organized crime of suppliers when we enter a contract with new suppliers, and incorporating anti-social forces clause and anti-money laundering clause into our standard contract.

The result of CSR/Sustainable survey (FY2025)

■Target of this survey
・Implementation period September 26, 2025～November 30, 2025
・Number of target suppliers
Number of target suppliers Number of respondents Response rate
62 44 70.9
■Outline of this survey
We conduct a survey using a “CSR/Sustainable procurement Self-Assessment Questionnaire” developed by the Global Compact Network Japan (GCNJ) in 2017, for the purpose of understanding potential Sustainability Risk and making sure to adhere to “the Japan Post Group CSR procurement Guidelines” which shows our way of thinking on procurement in our supply chain.
In the survey, we assess supplier’s achievement level of initiatives in figure below by scoring from the view of following five items, “Recognizing a law”, “Policy”, “Structure and Responsibility”, “Adhere to the results of initiatives” and “Correction”. (116 questions in total)
I Corporate Governances
□ To establish promotion system of CSR
□ To formulate Business Continuity Plan(BCP)
□ To establish Internal Reporting System
□ To post information to inside and outside the company
II Human Resources
□ To develop policy and guidelines
□ To respect human rights and prohibit discrimination
□ To raise awareness to prevent human rights violation
□ To respect life and culture of indigenous
III Labor
□ To prohibit discrimination in employment
□ To provide learning opportunities for employees
□ To prohibit harassment, abuse, and violence
□ To prohibit forced labor, Slave labor, missing labor, and inhumane labor
□ To prevent unfair wages, salary reduction and labor that exceeds statutory limits
□ To establish a union and to ensure the rights to collective bargaining
IV Environment
□ To reduce pollution and waste and to promote the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle)
□ To ensure proper management of chemicals in compliance with applicable laws
□ To consider water resources and biodiversity and to conduct assessment
V Fair business practices
□ To prevent corruption, and to prohibit bribery.
□ To prohibit abuse of superior bargaining position and collusion
□ To prohibit conflicts of interest
□ To respect and protect intellectual property
□ To eliminate relationship with organized crime groups
VI Quality and Safety
□ To ensure quality and safety of products and services
VII Information Security
□ To protect confidential information and personal data
□ To protect against computer network threats
VIII Supply Chain
□ To request suppliers to promote CSR
□ To identify and manage the use and country of origin of conflict minerals and cobalt
IX Coexistence with local communities
□ To support community activities and social contribution activities

■Aggregation results
The response rate of this survey in 2025 was 70.9%, 6.3points increased from last fiscal year’s 64.6% in line with growing awareness about CSR/Sustainable procurement among all suppliers. The average of scoring rate that measures achievement was 87.8%, 3.8 points increased from last fiscal year’s 84.0%. By category, (1) Corporate Governances (3) Labor and (5) Fair business practices (7) Information Security received high score, on the other hand, (8) Supply chain and (9) Coexistence with Local society scored low.

■Sharing the results of this survey with suppliers and Initiatives for improvement
  1. 1.
    Give feedback to suppliers
    We give all suppliers who responded to this survey with feedback on their results. We distribute to each supplier a document that shows their scores in the nine categories.
  2. 2.
    Supplier Monitoring
    We conduct monitoring online or through in person visits to suppliers’ offices to strengthen communication with our suppliers, regardless of the survey results.
    For suppliers with low scores, we give advice to them for improving their efforts or establishing their internal structure by showing them best practices of other suppliers after hearing the status of their efforts.
    For suppliers with high scores, we ask them to share best practices of their initiatives and to have their support for improving CSR/Sustainable procurement throughout our supply chain.
    In 2025, we conducted monitoring of 18 suppliers.
  3. 3.
    Follow-up for non-respondents
    For suppliers who did not respond to the questionnaire, we will continue to encourage their cooperation after helping them understand the purpose of this survey. Moreover, we strive to share information on CSR/Sustainable procurement policy with suppliers proactively by providing such information on the website, and to deepen engagement with suppliers through supplier monitoring or informational session.

Declaration of Partnership Building

Japan Post Group declare that we will promote better communication with suppliers, continue to strengthen fair transaction and create novel value throughout the supply chain in our “Declaration of Partnership Building”.

Information Disclosure

Remedial measures

As activities for raising human rights awareness and those for eradicating harassment, the Group tries to develop awareness through varied types of training and listens to employees in connection with compliance overall with a "one-stop consultation and internal platform" and other tools prepared for those needing consultation.
When employees seek advice about or report harassment, we will investigate each case based on their intentions and recognize cases of harassment if applicable. We strictly deal with cases recognized as harassment under the disciplinary action rules prescribed by each Group company. Additionally, we reflect cases in personnel evaluations and/or such measures as personnel transfers, depending on the details.

Japan Post Group FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
Number of cases of harassment*1 134 88 108 124（*2）
  1. Number of cases of disciplinary action relating to harassment
  2. The incidence of harassment was about 0.03％ among all employees (about 370,000 in total).
  • Coverage: Japan Post Holdings Co., Ltd., Japan Post Co., Ltd., Japan Post Bank Co., Ltd., and Japan Post Insurance Co., Ltd.

Labor initiatives

Realizing a human resource system adaptive to environmental changes

In light of rapid changes in the business environment, the Japan Post Group is reviewing its labor force composition with an eye on future business and responding to laws and regulations related to equal pay for equal work. Regarding employee treatment, we will continue to promote employees from contract worker to full-time employee status, further improve employee treatment, and make efforts to realize a simple and more acceptable salary system.

Initiatives to reduce working hours

The Japan Post Group complies with the laws and regulations relating to the Article 36 agreement and maintains a policy of reducing excessive working hours. Under the policy, we ensure appropriate management of working hours at each workplace and take a variety of initiatives to reduce overtime by increasing business efficiency and reforming the work climate so that all employees can exhibit their capacities to the full and fully enjoy working.

Complying with Industrial Safety and Health Act and related laws and regulations

The Japan Post Group complies with the Industrial Safety and Health Act and related laws and regulations and ensures constant and thorough management and confirmation to prevent violations in existing business operations. We also check compliance with the Industrial Safety and Health Act and the presence of a structure that prevents legal violations when any company is newly formed or M&A takes place.

Increase of wages

To make sure that all people can maintain the minimum standards of wholesome and cultured living as set out in Article 25 of the Constitution of Japan, the Japan Post Group, as its basic policy, complies with labor-related laws and regulations, pays a wage superior to the minimum wage of the region, and pays a fair wage according to jobs such as positions. We also conduct labor-management consultations every year to improve the wage level, including salaries, bonuses, and benefits, so that employees and their families in all regions can lead a richer life. We promise we will make further improvement.
Endorsing "the principle of equal remuneration for men and women workers for work of equal value" in C100 - Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) of the International Labour Organization, the Japan Post Group maintains standards for paying equal remuneration without sexual discrimination for work of equal value.

Complying with the labor-related laws and regulations

In existing business operations, the Japan Post Group complies with labor-related laws and regulations and ensures the constant management and confirmation to prevent legal violations. We also check compliance with labor-related laws and regulations and the presence of a structure that can prevent legal violations when any new company is set up or M&A takes place.

Labor/management relations

The Japan Post Group respects labor rights (the right to unionize and the right to work in groups for collective bargaining and others) in accordance with the Constitution of Japan and the Labor Union Act.
Within the Japan Post Group, there are labor unions including the Japan Postal Group Union. Collective bargaining is carried out for varied working conditions such as the wages and working hours of employees while equality is ensured between labor and management.

*Note: Number of employees eligible for collective bargaining and agreement (Japan Post Holdings, Japan Post, Japan Post Bank, Japan Post Insurance): Approx. 330,000 (approx. 91.7％ of all employees of four companies; as of the end of March 2025)

Relevant information

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