Initiatives on Human Rights

Human rights awareness activities

The TOTO Group has established the "TOTO Group Business Conduct Guidelines" so that employees can regularly check examples of behavior in line with the "TOTO Group Business Conduct Guidelines".

The TOTO Group Business Conduct Guidelines, which outline the conduct expected of TOTO Group employees and include the TOTO Group Corporate Philosophy, top commitment, and various guidelines for conduct, were drawn up in FY2013 (translated into 13 languages) and distributed to all Group Companies so as to ensure awareness among TOTO Group employees in every country and region.

The guidelines include a compliance guide on "Respect for Human Rights" and "Prohibition of Harassment" as one of the important compliance items in promoting corporate activities.

Furthermore, in Japan, the TOTO Group holds training sessions on human rights for all employees every year, which had approximately 18,000 attendants in FY 2024.

Prohibition of Harassment

The TOTO Group strives to eradicate any harassment, including sexual harassment, abuse of authority, and harassment related to pregnancy, childbirth, childcare leave, nursing care leave, etc.

The compliance guidelines for the Prohibition of Harassment are included in the TOTO Group Business Conduct Guidelines to foster ethical behavior by employees and improve compliance awareness. 

The TOTO Group also has a consultation service in place to ensure the appropriate response depending on the issue and situation. We strive to eradicate any harassment that adversely affects our workplace environment. 

Human Rights Due Diligence

Human Rights Due Diligence Process

In accordance with the TOTO Group Human Rights Policy established in fiscal 2023, the Group promotes human rights due diligence to identify, prevent and mitigate the adverse impact of its business activities on human rights throughout its value chain.  The Group identifies human rights-related risks in its business activities and implements initiatives to prevent and mitigate their adverse effects, verifying their effectiveness. It also discloses information on these initiatives to respect human rights in the integrated report and on the TOTO website.

[Overview of the Initiatives]

Implementation of Human Rights Impact Assessment

In fiscal 2024, as part of the human rights due diligence process, we identified and assessed human rights-related risks that could adversely affect our value chain with the cooperation of specialist organizations.

[Human Rights Impact Assessment flow]

1. Overviewing human rights issues related to the TOTO Group

・Sort out country risks based on countries in which the Group companies operate, their business models, etc. and identify potential human rights issues at each site.

・Identify human rights issues based on the existing internal survey results and reports.

2. Extracting risks related to the human rights issues

・Extract risks by referring to internal documents, , the Japanese Government's "Guidelines on Respecting Human Rights in Responsible Supply Chains," and the Ministry of Justice Human Rights Bureau's publication, "Report on the 'Research on Business and Human Rights': How Companies Should Respond Today."

・Conducted a human rights risk assessment for TOTO and its Group companies.

3. Assessing human rights-related risks

・Sort the extracted human rights issues into each value chain.

・Comprehensively determine human rights-related risks in each value chain based on previous survey activities. Map the risks based on two axes: severity and likelihood of occurrence.

4. Identifying areas/issues where human rights issues are likely to arise

・For items with high human rights-related risks, consider the following factors: comparison with second opinions from specialist organizations, relevance to the important human rights-related issues specified in the Idea Concerning the TOTO Group Human Rights Policy, interview surveys with some departments and Group companies, and strength of connection to our business. Then, identify areas/issues where human rights issues are likely to arise, which therefore have a high priority for action.

[Areas/Issues Where Human Rights Issues Are Likely to Arise]

Prevention and Mitigation of the Adverse Impact on Human Rights / Effectiveness Assessment

■Suppliers

The TOTO Group requests that all its direct suppliers and upstream businesses comply with the Group’s Supplier Code of Conduct. To identify human rights-related risks in the supply chain and implement appropriate prevention and mitigation measures for these issues, the Group requires all suppliers of raw materials and parts used in our products to complete, every three years, a sustainability questionnaire. This questionnaire begins with questions concerning human rights (including issues such as child labor and forced labor) and also covers the environment, health and safety, and business ethics.
The results of this questionnaire are used to confirm compliance with the Supplier Code of Conduct and to request improvements as necessary.
In fiscal year 2024, focusing on Japan's Technical Intern Training Program as a priority theme, two companies identified as high-priority through a desktop assessment underwent an audit program conducted by a third-party organization. As a result, although no serious non-compliance issues, such as forced or child labor, were identified, areas for further improvement in occupational health and safety were noted. The suppliers have already submitted corrective action plans for these findings and are implementing improvements.

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[Requesting cooperation from suppliers (FY2024)]