Japan, U.S. to launch entity to tackle human rights abuses

The Japanese and U.S. governments plan to jointly establish a new organization to eliminate human rights abuses from international supply chains, it has been learned. Spurred by such issues as forced labor in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in China, the new body will aim to promulgate within Japan regulations that Washington has strengthened to tackle such problems, according to several government o cials.

Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura will meet with U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to sign a memorandum of understanding for the establishment of the organization during his visit to the United States.

e envisioned task force will comprise the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry and the Foreign Ministry on the Japanese side, and the O ce of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), the State Department, the

Commerce Department and the Labor Department on the U.S. side. Japan’s industry ministry and the USTR will liaise as cochairs.

e new body will likely facilitate the sharing of supply chain-related regulations and policies between authorities and companies with the aim of eradicating human rights abuses — including forced labor and racial and religious discrimination — while analyzing the impact of the regulations on business activities.

In recent years, the United States has taken measures to exclude goods produced in China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region from its supply chains, claiming that members of the Uighur ethnic minority in that region are being subjected to forced labor.

In 2021, the United States suspended imports of goods produced by Fast Retailing Co. — operator of Uniqlo casual wear shops — saying there was insu cient proof that the company’s suppliers were not involved in forced labor. Washington also enforced the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act in June to ban, in principle, imports from the region.

Japanese companies have been calling on the economy ministry to provide more information to avoid potential problems, such as a ban on the export of their goods to the United States.

KISHIDA TO REAFFIRM STRONGER TIES

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is keen to confirm and deepen the Japan-U.S. alliance during his upcoming summit with U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington after Japan revised three key documents, including the National Security Strategy, according to sources.

e meeting, scheduled for Friday, is also intended to lay the ground for the Group of Seven summit to be held in Hiroshima in May.

Speaking on Jan. 4 at his rst press conference of the year, Kishida stressed that the Japan-U.S. summit “will be a very important meeting that goes beyond chairing of the G7.”

“I want to rea rm closer bilateral cooperation toward the realization of a free and open Indo-Paci c,” he said.

It will be the rst time for Kishida to visit Washington since taking o ce and the rst Japan-U.S. summit since he and Biden met in Phnom Penh in November. Kishida had previously sought to hold a Japan-U.S. summit at the White House but was unable to arrange a suitable date.

Biden is reportedly considering visiting Nagasaki — which was hit by an atomic bomb in 1945 — during his visit to Japan for the Hiroshima summit. e Japanese and U.S. leaders are expected to coordinate on a possible itinerary during the Washington summit.

According to Japanese and U.S. diplomatic sources, the two countries plan to hold 2-plus-2 security talks that will be attended by Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada on the Japanese side and Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on the U.S. side. e new division of roles between the Self-Defense Forces and the U.S. military is likely to be on the main agenda at the security talks.

By holding such talks during Kishida’s Washington visit, Japan and the United States likely hope to signal to the world their close ties. (Jan. 6)