Dentsu
Integrated Report
2019

The Dentsu Group is engaged in business activities that incorporate a respect for global human rights in all communications related to business activities, including advertising. We ensure that our activities maintain high ethical standards and reflect awareness of human rights, with the aim of helping to realize a sustainable and rich communication society. Recognizing that respect for human rights is at the core of the Company’s existence, it set up the Dentsu Group Human Rights Policy to promote ethical and sustainable business practices. We recognize protecting employee human rights to be an important responsibility, and so strive to prevent harassment and honor the human rights and individuality of all our employees, in order to make the most of their abilities. Dentsu Aegis Network released the Group’s declaration with regard to slave labor and human trafficking, which echoes the stipulations of the United Kingdom’s Modern Slavery Act 2015.
We will make an effort to prevent human trafficking, slavery, and forced labor by identifying and evaluating potential human rights impacts and risks in our business activities and supply chain.

The Human Rights Education Committee, which promotes human rights education as a specialized member under the CSR Committee, meets once every six months. In addition, a Dentsu Group Human Rights Education Conference is held once every six months for employees in charge of human rights education and general human rights education supervisors at domestic Group companies.
In addition to basic human rights issues, we present content that incorporates rights issues of timely relevance in terms of current affairs. In FY2018, a human rights awareness survey was conducted as part of our due diligence on human rights. Based on the results, we will enhance human rights-related measures throughout the Group.

To increase human rights awareness, the Group runs human rights awareness training programs based on both employee hierarchy and occupational field. The Dentsu Group Human Rights Education Conference is held twice a year for those in charge of human rights education at the Company, and for human rights education managers at Group companies. There are also various opportunities to raise awareness of human rights. Textbooks with information on human rights and explanations of their connection to advertising are utilized by employees.
The Human Rights College, a site that collects past examples of advertising expressions related to human rights, is posted on the Company’s intranet. This initiative enables continuous online learning that increases knowledge and realizes the pursuit of better communication. Further, a newsletter dealing with timely human rights-related topics is distributed within the Group twice a month.
In the area of advertising and human rights, the Group has a permanent consulting contact, to ensure that expressions communicated to the world are appropriate, and to respond to Group-wide inquiries. In addition to this, we cooperate with human rights-related seminars held at the Japan Advertising Agencies Association, and make efforts to raise awareness throughout the advertising industry.

We established a contact desk that responds to inquiries from Group employees and allows the identification of possible human rights-related risks associated with the right of expression in advertising.
During FY2018, the desk received 275 inquiries. These were handled individually, in a bid both to prevent any recurrence of the issues, and to increase human rights awareness. Harassment-related consultations are centrally managed by the Harassment Consultation Section within the Labor Administration Department of the Human Resources Division, with consultations available at Dentsu branch offices as well as outside the Company.
The section coordinates with harassment contacts at each Group company, in a bid to prevent harassment across the Group.