Direct: Employees, local communities, suppliers Indirect: Shareholders and investors, creditors, NGOs, industry groups
Our policy
In the Toyo Tire Group, the majority of employees work outside of Japan, and more than half of our consolidated net sales are generated overseas. Our business is expanding globally, and we have growing opportunities to communicate with diverse stakeholders both in and outside of the company, making it ever more important to act in a way that respects the human rights of everyone involved in our corporate activities.
The Global Human Rights & Labor Policy introduced in January 2019 sets out our clear commitment that, as our business globalizes and our stakeholders diversify, the Toyo Tire Group strives to carry out its business in a way that respects the human rights of everyone involved in our corporate activities, including those in our workplaces, at our suppliers, and within the communities where we operate, contributing to creating an inclusive society. We also engage with our suppliers to ensure that they understand our policy and encourage them to work with us to fulfill our common corporate responsibility to uphold human rights.
Corporate Officer and Vice President of Corporate Headquarters
Organizational responsibilities (as of April 2025)
Corporate Headquarters leads promotion of activities and reports progress to the Sustainability Committee.
The Sustainability Committee, chaired by the President, meets four times a year to report, discuss and approve activities related to human rights. Corporate Headquarters takes the lead in promoting activities and discussing the promotion of human rights based on the Global Human Rights & Labor Policy. We have also set up a system to prevent human rights violations on a daily basis. We will continue to call on our suppliers and other business partners to support this policy.
Human rights due diligence
In accordance with our Global Human Rights & Labor Policy, we conduct human rights due diligence to recognize and take action against adverse impacts on human rights (human rights risks) in Group business activities and the supply chain.
In 2023, we identified and assessed which human rights risks are relevant throughout all of our Group business activities and the supply chain, then went further to identify which risks are the most important for us to take action on. In order to ensure objectivity, this process was conducted with the help of external experts in business and human rights.
Identifying important risks
Identifying human rights risks
We identified relevant human rights risks in our business activities and the supply chain by surveying each of our division headquarters to understand the business characteristics that are linked to risks, while also comparing these with risks considered inherent to our industry based on reports and recommendations by prominent international institutions and organizations, including the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Caux Round Table (CRT), as well as actual cases of risk that have manifested within the industry.
Assessing the significance of human rights risks
All identified relevant human rights risks for each type of rights holder (those whose human rights are at risk of being adversely impacted) were scored by severity (the level of harm should an incident occur) and likelihood (the ease of manifestation within the Group). The significance of each risk was then assessed, with more weight given to severity in accordance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
Variables
Scoring method
Severity
Focuses on the scale of harm, possibility to provide remedy, and the scope of impact
Likelihood
Focuses on potential factors (highlighted by international institutions as an important industry risk; problem that occurred at another company in the same industry; factor inherent to our business) and actual factors (real cases at our company)
Identifying important human rights risks
The results of this assessment were used to identify important risks of priority to the Group.
(1)Rights holders: Group employees, job applicants
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(2)Rights holders: Manufacturing contractors, distributors, raw material suppliers
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(3)Rights holders: Sales partners, consumers, indigenous and other local communities
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Addressing important risks
To address these important risks, we are strengthening our existing measures and continuously working toward their prevention. For risks that require new management schemes, we have established action plans and are giving them special priority to ensure prevention and mitigation. Moving forward, we will monitor these initiatives to further improve their effectiveness.
(1)Rights holders: Group employees, job applicants
Important risks
Specific risks
Initiatives
Progress
Lack of workplace health & safety at manufacturing sites
・Adverse impacts on health and safety due to use of toxic substances, hazardous machinery or high-temperature vulcanization in development and production processes around the world
・Operate and promote a health and safety management system based on OSHMS guidelines and ISO 45001 at all Group companies
・Foreign and other workers, primarily at production bases, engaging in hard labor against their will
・Loss of children’s educational opportunities and adverse impacts on their health and safety as a result of engaging in child labor
・Discover any current forced/ compulsory or child labor, build systems to eliminate
・In 2024, we created guidelines for production bases to communicate the internationally-recognized definitions of forced and child labor, important information regarding labor practices and routine prevention measures and incidence response processes across the Group.
・In 2025, we used these guidelines to conduct self-assessments at all production bases globally, which confirmed that there have been no forced or child labor incidents and that hiring processes are in place to prevent child labor. Going forward, we will continue strengthening systems to prevent human rights violations at production bases, as well as monitor conditions and enhance prevention through employee education and engagement based on assessment results.
Self-assessment period: Jan-Mar 2025
Production
bases
assessed
13
Assessment
topics
Forced labor, child labor
Assessment
items
19
Example
assessment
items
・Is employee movement away from workplaces, dormitories or factories restricted outside of working hours?
・Is candidate age verification using official documents required during the hiring process?
Power harassment or discrimination
・Power harassment between workers
・Discrimination in communication between workers
・Discrimination in evaluations and promotions based on specific attributes such as gender, sexual orientation, nationality, race, ideology, religion and disability
・Enhance training on preventing harassment and discrimination
Discrimination against candidates in hiring interviews
・Discrimination in the hiring process based on specific attributes such as gender, sexual orientation, nationality, race, ideology, religion and disability
・Improve training materials for employees in charge of interviews
・In 2024, we improved guidance, including by providing examples of inappropriate questions and reasons something might be felt as discriminatory, and made human rights education compulsory in the existing training for interviewers in charge of new graduate hiring at Toyo Tire Corporation.
・From 2025, we plan to expand this initiative to hiring interviewers at Group companies in Japan.
Long working hours, excessively strenuous work
・Long working hours in order to meet short delivery times
・Strengthen efforts to secure necessary personnel and improve productivity
・We conduct thorough labor-management negotiations annually to help reduce overtime work and ensure proper working hour management.
・We are also promoting stocktaking and streamlining of operations throughout. the company, aiming for an organizational structure with no overtime.
(2)Rights holders: Manufacturing contractors, distributors, raw material suppliers
Important risks
Specific risks
Initiatives
Progress
Lack of workplace health & safety at manufacturing sites
・Adverse impacts on health and safety due to work such as cutting, high-temperature vulcanization or forklift use
Create and execute an action plan for each type of rights holder
➣Raw material suppliers
・Strengthen raw material supplier management scheme
・Enhance sustainable procurement
・In 2024, we distributed the Toyo Tire Group CSR Procurement Guidelines to 17 warehousing contractors in Japan and 31 manufacturing contractors around the world, focusing on those that need to take important risks into account based on the work we outsource, and requested again that they support our Group’s standpoint and promote these initiatives. We will continue engaging with our business partners to work toward the ongoing prevention of human rights violations.
Survey period: Sept 2024-Feb 2025
Respondent
companies
17 warehousing contractors in Japan
31 manufacturing contractors globally (with one company providing responses for two locations)
Survey
topics
Forced labor, child labor, long working hours, insufficient or non-payment of wages, occupational health and safety
Questions
29
Example questions
・Do you have company rules or regulations about child labor?
・Do you conduct education or awareness-raising about health and safety?
・See “Promote supply chain sustainability” for information on human rights efforts in the supply chain (raw material suppliers and distributors)
Long working hours, excessively strenuous work (at manufacturing sites /at raw material production sites)
・Long working hours to fulfill contracts made with our Group
Forced/ compulsory or child labor
・Foreign and other workers at contractor factories or rubber plantations engaging in hard labor against their will
・Loss of children’s educational opportunities and adverse impacts on their health and safety as a result of engaging in child labor at contractor factories or rubber plantations
(3)Rights holders: Sales partners, consumers, indigenous and other local communities
Important risks
Specific risks
Initiatives
Progress
Indirect complicity in wars of aggression through sourcing of conflict minerals and other materials
・Inadvertent funding of armed groups due to procurement or other use of conflict minerals as raw materials
・Enhance surveying of smelters about parts potentially using conflict minerals
Indirect complicity in conflict through sales practices
・Harm to the lives and livelihoods of people in conflict regions due to use of our products by armed groups
・Strengthen sales partner management scheme
・To confirm that our customers are not complicit in human rights issues that violate local laws, from 2025 we will begin using third-party investigatory tools to conduct routine checks in addition to catch-all control and other Security Export Controls.
Adverse impact on local communities through production or disposal of our products
・Harm to the health of local residents and the environment caused by noise or air, soil and water pollution
・Further improve wastewater management, noise control
・Take a precautionary principle approach to risks that increase biodiversity impact in the vicinity of production bases that are anticipated to have a large environmental impact
The Group does not allow labor practices that violate laws in any country or region.
We do not use forced labor (including that resulting from human trafficking), in which workers labor against their will or perform labor or services involuntarily under threat of punishment, nor child labor performed by persons under the legal working age. To ensure no child labor occurs, we confirm that a person is of legal working age during the hiring process, present them with a notice of employment terms, and conclude an employment contract under mutual consent of both parties. In 2023, we confirmed that no one under the age of 18 was employed at any of our Group bases around the world, and are conducting routine prevention at all production bases globally based on our Forced and Child Labor Prevention Guidelines established in 2024.
Our process of identifying important risks has made us aware of the risks of forced and child labor throughout our supply chain — particularly among Group employees and the employees of manufacturing contractors, distributors, and raw material suppliers — as well as their potential to cause an extensive and severe negative impact on rights holders if they were to occur. We have thus established specific action plans for each type of rights holder and are working to prevent these risks.
Raising awareness of respect for human rights
We work continuously to raise awareness of the company’s responsibility to respect human rights through e-learning sessions on our Corporate Code of Conduct as well as level-specific and other training. We also participate in human rights awareness activities at every region where our business sites are located, and strive to respect the human rights of everyone related to our business operations, including those at our suppliers and within the communities where we operate.
On Human Rights Day, the President of Toyo Tire Corporation sends a message to all Group employees, stressing the importance of having a foundation of deeply diverse talent to generate value through our business, and of demonstrating sincerity with all stakeholders.
This message is published in eight languages (Japanese, English, Chinese, German, Portuguese, Thai, Malay and Serbian) so that it can be understood by all Group employees.
Compliance with laws and regulations of each country
We publish information on our measures to ensure that neither slavery nor human trafficking is taking place within the Group or in our supply chains, in accordance with the UK, Australia, and Canada’s Modern Slavery Acts.
We have set up a dedicated desk for anonymous complaints and concerns regarding the natural rubber supply chain. We also provide harassment hotlines and counselors for employees at each of our business sites in Japan to detect and resolve incidents of workplace harassment at an early stage. With each system, reports and concerns are investigated internally as needed, giving due consideration to the protection of privacy for those involved, and corrective action is taken when issues are found. We also maintain a number of other contact points, including a customer service center and web-based inquiry form for consumers, local communities, and other members of the general public.
Dedicated Natural Rubber Supply Chain Desk: For customers (consumers) and suppliers
Harassment hotline: For employees
Customer Relations Department: For customers (consumers) and local communities
Online inquiry form: For customers (consumers), shareholders and investors, and NGOs
Labor-Management Council Meetings: For employees
Cases of human rights violations
There were no cases of human rights violations in fiscal 2024.
