Stakeholder Engagement

The NYK Group engages in corporate activities that involve a wide range of people, organizations, and communities around the world. To ensure that our activities remain sound, we need to manage our operations based on the interests of all stakeholders, including customers, shareholders, investors, business partners, employees, and local communities. We make every effort to listen to the voices of all our stakeholders. Additionally, every employee strives daily for improvement by learning new perspectives and values from our stakeholders, and by experiencing firsthand the changes of the times. We engage with our stakeholders on the topic of human rights as follows.

FY2023

Participation in Stakeholder Engagement Program

Since 2012, we have been participating in the Stakeholder Engagement Program (Human Rights Due Diligence Workshop) organized by CRT Japan. In fiscal 2023, we participated from Jun 1 to July 27.

Through discussion on a wide range of human rights issues with participating companies, human rights experts, and representatives of NGOs, NPOs, and other organizations, we acquired knowledge on the human rights required to implement the human rights due diligence demanded by the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. In addition, together with other transport and logistics companies that participated in the program, we reviewed "Human Rights Issues by Sector", which were identified using the human rights guidance tool created by the UNEP FI (United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative), and we deepened our understanding of human rights issues in the transport industry.

Participation in 2022 Business and Human Rights Conference

An NYK representative also made a presentation at the 2023 Business and Human Rights Conference held in Tokyo by CRT Japan on October 20, 2023. Yuko Tsutsui, executive officer, introduced our human rights project launched in April 2022. We emphasized that the NYK Group has established a Group management system that is based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and incorporates external perspectives. We explained our efforts regarding business and human rights, as well as issues identified through the human rights due diligence process for ship recycling and the measures implemented by suppliers to improve the working conditions of laborers. Furthermore, international human rights experts, representatives of human rights NGOs and NPOs, and other participating companies shared information on the latest global trends and views on business and human rights and examples of human rights due diligence initiatives of other companies, and we were able to deepen our understanding of global trends and business and human rights issues requiring urgent attention.
Through dialogue with stakeholders, NYK is committed to accurately understanding human rights issues that must be addressed.

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Dialogue with External Expert

NYK hold dialogues with external experts to explain the Group's initiatives, obtain assessments, and receive suggestions on future initiatives. The deputy chief executive of the ESG Strategy Headquarters, who is also an executive director of the company, participates in these dialogues together with the general manager of NYK's ESG Management Group. We will continue to promote our initiatives based on the comments received.

On October 19, 2023, we invited human rights experts from three overseas organizations to a dialogue, in which we reported on NYK's business and human rights initiatives and received comments from the experts, as shown below.

  • Experts
    • Mr. Sean Christopher Lees, Business and Human Rights Specialist, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Asia Pacific
    • Ms. Jill van de Walle, Research Analyst, World Benchmarking Alliance
    • Mr. Ram Ganesh Kamatham, Project Manager, Sustainable Shipping Initiative
  • Expert Comments
    • Information disclosure should be expanded. It would be good to disclose how much has been achieved against a baseline prescribed for each initiative. Incorporating actual levels of achievement into performance evaluation mechanisms would be effective.
    • Your efforts to actually visit the site and understand the situation of the workers are an excellent way to contribute to building a relationship of trust between your company and the workers. For impact assessment, it will be good also to engage with local NGOs and civil society so that you can probe business impact on a wide range of rights holders, in addition to the workers.
    • Just transition will require providing those having difficulty keeping pace with new developments with opportunities to work in new fields. Seafarers will be required to update their skills in supporting operation of ships using next-generation fuels.
    • In dealing with human rights issues at the sites, it would be good to provide not only generalized training on "business and human rights," but also more practical human rights training tailored to each business and the human rights situation in each country where the business is located. By placing your company's human rights response within a "continuous kaizen process" of NYK Group companies and suppliers, it will contribute to enhancing corporate competitiveness of such companies and suppliers as well.

Engagements with Institutional Investors

In December 2023, NYK held an in-person and online dialogue in London with four institutional investors based in the UK, France, and Switzerland to promote ESG investment. Executive Officer Yuko Tsutsui participated from NYK, and CRT Japan acted as an intermediary in arranging the dialogue. NYK first gave an overview of the Group's ESG initiatives and then responded to questions related to assessments offered by each institutional investor. The engagement helped us deepen our understanding of our institutional investors' expectations of our company's attitude and initiatives.
Concerning the human rights aspect of “social” initiatives in ESG, institutional investors praised the Group for directly engaging with frontline workers, seafarers, and other rights holders based on the UN Guiding Principles. Particular interest was also shown in our efforts to increase the ratio of female seafarers and train female captains, reminding us once again of the importance of efforts to promote women's participation. While our environmental initiatives were known to them, they appeared to be unfamiliar with our efforts to promote respect for human rights. They offered words of encouragement for us to become a leading company in the shipping industry, both in terms of the environment and respect for human rights.

Past initiatives

FY2022

Participation in Stakeholder Engagement Program

Since 2013, we have been participating in the Stakeholder Engagement Program (Human Rights Due Diligence Workshop) organized by CRT Japan. In fiscal 2022, we participated from May 19 to July 14.

Through discussion on a wide range of human rights issues with participating companies, human rights experts, and representatives of NGOs, NPOs, and other organizations, we acquired knowledge on the human rights required to implement the human rights due diligence demanded by the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. In addition, together with other transport and logistics companies that participated in the program, we reviewed "Human Rights Issues by Sector", which were identified using the human rights guidance tool created by the UNEP FI (United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative), and we deepened our understanding of human rights issues in the transport industry.

Participation in 2022 Business and Human Rights Conference

An NYK representative also made a presentation at the 2022 Business and Human Rights Conference held in Tokyo by CRT Japan on October 21, 2022. Yuko Tsutsui, executive officer, introduced our human rights project launched in April 2022. Emphasizing that the NYK Group as a whole has established a foundation for a management framework based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which incorporates an external perspective, she explained NYK's specific process to identify salient human rights issues and introduced NYK's initiative in conducting an online interview of site supervisors at a ship recycling yard in India. The interview was conducted to check the actual conditions of the working environment and measures for respecting human rights at the yard. Furthermore, international human rights experts, representatives of human rights NGOs and NPOs, and other participating companies shared information on the latest global trends and views on business and human rights and examples of human rights due diligence initiatives of other companies, and we were able to deepen our understanding of global trends and business and human rights issues requiring urgent attention.
Through dialogue with stakeholders, NYK is committed to accurately understanding human rights issues that must be addressed.

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Dialogue with External Expert

On January 25, 2023, NYK held an online dialogue with Mr. Andrew Stephens, Executive Director of the Sustainable Shipping Initiative*, seeking input to support NYK Group's human rights initiatives including human rights due diligence etc. As an external stakeholder working on sustainability issues across the shipping sector, from human rights to decarbonization, Mr. Stephens engaged in a constructive dialogue around the initiatives NYK Group implemented in the fiscal 2022 and discussed the future outlook and the potential entry into force of the Ship Recycling Convention and market discourse around the possible expansion of the number of ship recycling countries.
With regard to formulating our Human Rights Policy, identifying salient human rights issues in NYK Group, and implementing the human rights impact assessment in accordance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, Mr. Stephens noted the importance of "taking a very forward lead to ensure that things are done right." Mr. Stephens further noted that direct communication with rights-holders and other stakeholders is "the most effective and reliable way", where possible and with freely participating parties, to conduct human rights due diligence, and encouraged NYK to continue to emphasize this in future initiatives.
He further highlighted that it is important to ensure transparency by disclosing human rights policies and initiatives on websites and other media. In particular, ship recycling is carried out by indirect suppliers who may not have a direct contractual relationship with the shipowner, and therefore NYK's influence on its realization may be limited. In addition to continuously monitoring the implementation and compliance of our policy (ship-recycling policy) with these suppliers, he noted that it is important and effective to also ensure transparency and accountability in ship recycling and engage in early discussions with multiple actors, including peers in the sector, to establish shared standards for ship recycling. He additionally encouraged us to share learnings and successes from our initiatives as case studies to contribute to industry learning and support progress.
Finally, he stressed the importance of clearly communicating our position, policies, and principles to suppliers, and continually leading the way by example with steadfast resilience for initiatives to respect human rights.
We continue to promote initiatives to respect human rights, taking advice and feedback from experts and stakeholders.

  • *Sustainable Shipping Initiative
    The Sustainable Shipping Initiative (SSI) is a multi-stakeholder collective that brings together leaders across the maritime ecosystem to catalyze change, shed light on emerging issues, and accelerate action toward a sustainable maritime industry. SSI members are shipowners and charterers; ports; shipyards, marine product, equipment and service providers; banks, ship finance and insurance providers; classification societies; and sustainability non-profits. SSI hosted the Ship Recycling Transparency Initiative (SRTI) between 2018 - 2022. On May 11, 2021, NYK became the first Japanese shipping company to join the SRTI.

<Overview>

  • Date: January 25, 2023
  • Format: Online communication with the expert from NYK head office
  • Expert:
    • Andrew Stephens, Executive Director, Sustainable Shipping Initiative
  • Participants from NYK:
    • Yuko Tsutsui, Executive Officer, In charge of ESG Management Promotion Group
    • Kenichiro Sutoh, Executive Officer, In charge of Legal & Fair Trade Promotion Group
    • Yoichiro Tatsumi, General Manager, ESG Management Promotion Group
    • Noriko Serita, Manager, ESG Communication Team, ESG Management Promotion Group
    • Hiroshi Horie, ESG Communication Team, ESG Management Group
    • Eriko Yoneyama, Manager, GHR Coordination Team, Human Resources Group
    • Other Member of Human Rights Project from ESG Management Promotion Group, Legal & Fair Trade Promotion Group, and Human Resources Group
  • Facilitator:
    • Hiroshi Ishida, Executive Director, Caux Round Table Japan
    • Miho Okada, Director, Caux Round Table Japan

FY2021

Participation in Stakeholder Engagement Program

NYK participated in the 2021 Stakeholder Engagement Program (Human Rights Due Diligence Workshops) organized by Caux Round Table Japan (CRT Japan) from July 8 to September 30, 2021.

In this program, company participants, human rights experts, and NGO/NPO representatives engaged in discussions on the latest issues for human rights due diligence set out in the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

As was done in the previous fiscal year, NYK reviewed with participants from transport and logistics companies the "Human Rights Issues by Sector" formulated with the UNEP FI (United Nations Environment Program / Finance Initiative) Human Rights Guidance Tool. NYK was subsequently able to identify and deepen its understanding of human rights issues in the transportation industry. As a feature of the 2021 workshop, issues related to the impact and response to COVID-19 were shared and discussed, focusing mainly on foreign essential workers and seafarers to identify key human rights concerns.

Participation in 2021 International Conference on Business and Human Rights

NYK participated in the 2021 International Conference on Business and Human Rights held on 22 October 2021.The conference was held online in consideration of the COVID-19 pandemic.

NYK was able to deepen its understanding of the latest global trends on business and human rights by reviewing other Japanese companies' cases of human rights due diligence processes with overseas human rights experts, NGO/NPOs, and many of the participating companies, and exchanging opinions with participants at the workshops. Through these dialogues with stakeholders, NYK will continue to address human rights issues and actively make efforts for needed resolution.

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FY2020

Participation in Stakeholder Engagement Program

NYK participated in the 2020 Stakeholder Engagement Program (Human Rights Due Diligence Workshops) organized by Caux Round Table Japan (CRT Japan) from August 27 to November 18, 2020.

In this program, participants from other companies, human rights experts, and NGOs/NPOs engaged in discussions on the latest issues for human rights due diligence set out in the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

As was done in the previous fiscal year, NYK reviewed with participants from transport and logistics companies the "Human Rights Issues by Sector" formulated with the UNEP FI (United Nations Environment Program / Finance Initiative) Human Rights Guidance Tool. NYK was subsequently able to identify and deepen its understanding of human rights issues in the transportation industry. As a feature of the 2020 workshop, the impact and response issues of Covid-19 were also shared and discussed to identify key human rights issues.

Participation in 2020 International Conference on Business and Human Rights

NYK participated in the 2020 International Conference on Business and Human Rights held on 16 October 2020.The conference was held online in consideration of the COVID-19 pandemic.

NYK was able to deepen its understanding of the latest global trends on business and human rights by reviewing other Japanese companies' cases of human rights due diligence processes with overseas human rights experts, NGO/NPOs, and many of the participating companies, and exchanging opinions with participants at the workshops. Through these dialogues with stakeholders, NYK will continue to address human rights issues and actively make efforts for needed resolution.

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FY2019

Participation in Stakeholder Engagement Program

NYK participated in the 2019 Stakeholder Engagement Program (Human Rights Due Diligence Workshops) organized by Caux Round Table Japan (CRT Japan) from May 20 to July 18, 2019.

In this program, participants from other companies, human rights experts, and NGOs/NPOs engaged in discussions on the latest issues for human rights due diligence set out in the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

As was done in the previous fiscal year, NYK reviewed with participants from transport and logistics companies the "Human Rights Issues by Sector" formulated with the UNEP FI (United Nations Environment Program / Finance Initiative) Human Rights Guidance Tool. NYK was subsequently able to identify and deepen its understanding of human rights issues in the transportation industry.

Participation in 2019 International Conference on Business and Human Rights

NYK participated in the 2019 International Conference on Business and Human Rights held in Tokyo from 11 October 2019.

NYK was able to deepen its understanding of the latest global trends on business and human rights by reviewing other Japanese companies' cases of human rights due diligence processes with overseas human rights experts, NGO/NPOs, and many of the participating companies, and exchanging opinions with participants at the workshops. Through these dialogues with stakeholders, NYK will continue to address human rights issues and actively make efforts for needed resolution.

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FY2017

Participation in Stakeholder Engagement Program

NYK participated in the 2017 Stakeholder Engagement Program (Human Rights Due Diligence Workshops) organized by Caux Round Table Japan (CRT Japan) from June 1 to July 13, 2017.

In this program, participants from other companies, human rights experts, and NGOs/NPOs engaged in discussions on the latest issues for human rights due diligence set out in the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

As was done in the previous fiscal year, NYK reviewed with participants from transport and logistics companies the "Human Rights Issues by Sector" formulated with the UNEP FI (United Nations Environment Program / Finance Initiative) Human Rights Guidance Tool. NYK was subsequently able to identify and deepen its understanding of human rights issues in the transportation industry.

Participation in 2017 International Conference on Business and Human Rights

NYK participated in the 2017 International Conference on Business and Human Rights held in Tokyo from 15 September 2017.

NYK was able to deepen its understanding of the latest global trends on business and human rights by reviewing other Japanese companies' cases of human rights due diligence processes with overseas human rights experts, NGO/NPOs, and many of the participating companies, and exchanging opinions with participants at the workshops. Through these dialogues with stakeholders, NYK will continue to address human rights issues and actively make efforts for needed resolution.

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FY2016

Participation in Stakeholder Engagement Program

NYK participated in the 2016 Stakeholder Engagement Program (Human Rights Due Diligence Workshops) organized by Caux Round Table Japan (CRT Japan) from June 15 to 27, 2016.
Through dialogues with participants from other companies, NGOs/NPOs, and human rights experts, NYK was able to identify sector-specific human rights issues and priorities for SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals).

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NYK deepened its understanding of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the SDGs, and was also able to discuss with participants from transport and logistics companies the positive and negative societal and environmental impacts of business activities conducted through the NYK Group's global value chain.

Participation in 2016 International Conference on Business and Human Rights

NYK participated in 2016 International Conference on Business and Human Rights held in Tokyo from 15 to 16 September 2016.

Through its participation, NYK deepened its understanding of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the latest global trends, and was able to review other companies' human rights due diligence processes with overseas human rights experts, NGO/NPOs, and many of the participating companies.

Moreover, NYK participated in discussions on four themes aimed at helping companies to develop business globally, namely promoting responsible supply chains, building effective grievance mechanisms, understanding the trend of corporate assessment, and achieving a success of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.

NYK will use its participation in this conference, along with stakeholder engagement, to accurately address human rights issues and actively make efforts for needed resolution.

  • *Please refer to the CRT-Japan website for details.
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  • Date: September 15-16, 2016
  • Venue: Tokyo, AP Tokyo Marunouchi
  • Hosts:
    • Caux Round Table Japan
    • Institute for Human Rights and Business
    • Business & Human Rights Resource Centre
  • Sponsors:
    • Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK)
    • Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.
    • ASICS Corporation
    • Nippon Express Co. Ltd.
    • ANA Holdings, and others
  • Participating overseas human rights groups:
    • Institute for Human Rights and Business
    • Business & Human Rights Resource Centre
    • OECD Working Party on Responsible Business Conduct
    • The Danish Institute for Human Rights, and others

Dialogue with Human Rights Experts

On September 14, 2016, NYK held an exclusive dialogue concerning human rights initiatives in the NYK Group with two overseas human-rights experts from the Institute for Human Rights and Business and the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable.
NYK introduced its specific efforts to ensure human rights, along with the company's achievements involving fair trade products, human resources development, environmental conservation, and safety management using NYK's original unified NAV9000 safety standards.
NYK received useful feedback from the overseas experts and shared the company's latest trends in human rights and human rights issues. The dialog was fruitful, deepening the company's understanding of human rights due diligence and preparing it to pursue an active dialogue with stakeholders.

  • Date: September 14, 2016
  • Venue: Tokyo, AP Tokyo Marunouchi
  • Human rights experts:
    • Lucy Amis, Institute for Human Rights and Business
    • Sara Blackwell, International Corporate Accountability Roundtable
  • Participants from NYK's Human Resources Group:
    • Shinji Umehara, General Manager
    • Nobuki Kurosaka, Deputy General Manager
    • Teruhiko Takasaki, Manager
    • Eriko Yoneyama
  • Participants from NYK's Corporate Communication and CSR Group:
    • Ushio Koiso, General Manager
    • Naoko Nukiyama, Manager
  • Facilitator and interpreter:
    • Hiroshi Ishida, executive director, Caux Round Table Japan
    • Minoru Matsuzaki, secretariat, Caux Round Table Japan

FY2015

Dialogue with Human Rights Experts

NYK participated in an exclusive dialogue with human rights experts visiting Tokyo as speakers at the 2015 Business and Human Rights International Conference in Tokyo organized by CRT Japan. Through this dialogue, we identified actual and potential CSR risk on human rights due diligence and determined what should be done to reduce or prevent this risk. We continue to deepen our awareness of human rights issues and to enhance our risk management in our business activities.

  • Date: September 15, 2015
  • Venue: Tokyo, AP Tokyo Marunouchi
  • Human rights experts:
    • Ms. Motoko Aizawa, Institute for Human Rights and Business
    • Mr. Allan Lerberg Jørgensen, Danish Institute for Human Rights
    • Mr. Christopher Schuller, German Institute for Human Rights
    • Mr. Dan Murray, Sedex Head of Business Development
    • Mr. Amol Mehra, Director, International Corporate Accountability Roundtable
  • Participants from NYK:
    • Mr. Yoshiyuki Yoshida, Director, Managing Corporate Officer
    • Ms. Yuko Tsutsui, Deputy General Manager, Human Resources Group, General Affairs Headquarters
    • Mr. Shinji Umehara, Deputy General Manager, Human Resources Group, General Affairs Headquarters
  • Facilitator and interpreter:
    • Hiroshi Ishida, Executive Director, Caux Round Table Japan

FY2014

NYK Participates in Dialogue with Human Rights Experts

NYK participated in a dialogue with human rights experts who had visited Tokyo as speakers at the 2014 Global Conference on CSR and Risk Management. Our aim was to identify any actual or potential adverse human rights impacts, either through our own activities or as a result of our business relationships, by drawing on independent external human rights expertise, a procedure recommended in clause 18 of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
Experts raised three points as material human rights issues in the marine industry: (1) protecting mariners' health and safety, (2) ensuring transparency in cargo clearance, and (3) actively embracing public policy to respect human rights. Related to these issues, we discussed concerns regarding human rights abuses resulting from business relationships, such as cargo transportation in areas in conflict, and the health and safety of shipbreaking workers and workers at terminals.
We indicated our mindset and actions to address and mitigate these adverse human rights impacts, including our participation in a joint shipping initiative consisting of seven multinational shipping companies to support building projects in Somalia. Giving serious consideration to the findings we obtained through this dialogue, we will take appropriate action to ensure a respect of human rights.

  • Date: September 3, 2014; 16:00 to 17:30
  • Venue: Kwansei Gakuin University, Tokyo Marunouchi Campus, Lambuth Hall
  • Experts
    • John Morrison, Executive Director, Institute for Human Rights and Business
    • Amol Mehra, Director, International Corporate Accountability Roundtable
    • Cathrine Poulsen-Hansen, Adviser, Human Rights and Business Department, Danish Institute for Human Rights
  • Participants from NYK
    • Mr. Yoshiyuki Yoshida, Corporate Officer, General Affairs Headquarters
    • Ms. Yuko Tsutsui, Deputy General Manager, Human Resources Group, General Affairs Headquarters
    • Ms. Tsugiko Odaka, Deputy Manager, HR Coordination Team (Office for Corporate Citizenship), Human Resources Group, General Affairs Headquarters
  • Facilitator and Interpreter
    • Hiroshi Ishida, Executive Director, Caux Round Table Japan