Japan is a founding member State of the ILO, and a valued partner in promoting the Decent Work Agenda. Japan has ratified 49 Conventions, including six Fundamental, three Governance and 40 Technical Conventions

Japan’s contribution to the ILOA key partner in the promotion of social justice and decent work, Japan supports the ILO´s mandate by contributing to both its core budget and its development cooperation programmes.

The ILO works closely with the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW). This collaboration aims primarily to support fair globalization, contributing to poverty reduction, advancing occupational safety and health, promoting international labour standards and social dialogue.

MHLW provides strategic funding to implement development, research and crisis-response programmes, chiefly through a multi-bilateral programme and a lightly-earmarked funding facility to build Social Safety Nets in Asia and the Pacific. The Ministry further supports the work of the ILO’s International Training Centre in Turin to strengthen the capacity of actors in the world of work.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) provides further support in the area of prevention and response

to crisis and fragility, both directly and through the UN Trust Fund for Human Security. This cooperation includes livelihood-oriented emergency response to both humanitarian and environmental crises. The ILO also collaborates with the Japanese International Cooperation Agency ( JICA) for technical interventions at the local level.

The collaboration extends to the Japanese private sector, such as Fast Retailing, the holding company of the Japanese apparel retailer UNIQLO, which supports a global programme to promote employment and social protection in Indonesia.

Furthermore, the ILO benefits from Japanese expertise through the country´s participation in the Junior Professional Officer programme as well as the secondment of Japanese officials and specialists from the Japanese Consumers´ Cooperative Union. The latter also supports, with the Japanese Co-operative Alliance, an annual Study Tour to Japan for African cooperative leaders, which celebrated its 10th edition in 2019.

Japan ILO Cooperation

X December 2020

Japan’s international assistance priorities

Japan contributes proactively to the peace, stability and prosperity of the international community. The priority areas for Japanese international assistance are: • Poverty reduction

and quality growth: education, health and population, water and sanitation, agriculture and rural development, infrastructure and ICT.

• Peace building and humanitarian assistance

• Resilient international community: environment, energy, climate change and disaster risk reduction

• Gender equality and human security.

In 2019, Japan provided US$ 15.5 billion in Official Development Assistance, which represents 0.29 % of its gross national income, making Japan the fourth-largest donor country in absolute terms and the largest in Asia (source: OECD Development Co-operation Profiles, 2020).

c Japan’s total contributions to the ILO 2014-2019, US$, Millions Japan’s financial contribution to the ILO

Japan funds the ILO through:

• Assessed contributions, which are paid by all ILO member States by virtue of their membership. Japan provided US$ 244 million between 2014 and 2019.

• Voluntary contributions earmarked to priority programmes , regions and projects. Between 2014 and 2019, Japan’s voluntary contributions totalled more than US$ 31 million.

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20

40

60

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

US$

Mill

ions

Assessed Voluntary, MHLW Voluntary, MOFA

Despite efforts by the international community, governments, businesses and workers organizations to promote decent work for all, most global supply chain initiatives have been limited to the formal sector, which accounts for less than 40 per cent of global jobs. The most disadvantaged groups remain unreached and invisible.

The ILO and Japan are working to overcome this obstacle by promoting ethical and sustainable global supply chains, focusing on the most vulnerable people working in the lower tiers of supply chains and reaching informal and home based workers, mostly women and migrants, in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The project has trained more than 9,350 people from the government, trade unions, membership-based organizations and sectoral employers’ organizations on the rights of informal and home-based workers, including on wages, health and safety. More than 8,850 workers, of which 6,260 women, have been supported to organize and unionize in India and Nepal.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the project facilitated the access of workers to services, rations and livelihood support. To continue offering services to constituents, the project adopted on-line methodologies in a training on promoting safe workplaces and infection prevention. Additionally, employers’ organizations supported the registration of 150 women-led micro enterprises.

c Towards fair and sustainable global supply chains in South Asia

The world of work is rapidly changing, as are the skills required to enter and remain in the labour market. The InSIGHT project promotes skills development as a pathway towards inclusive growth in the ASEAN region by facilitating constructive linkages between skills development and other established systems of industrial relations. The conclusions and recommendations from the 9th Tripartite Regional Seminar on Industrial Relations in the ASEAN Region is the regional centrepiece of collaboration among ASEAN Member States, ASEAN Secretariat and the ILO.

In the context of COVID-19, the project organized a series of virtual trainings and seminars in Indonesia, including digital skills and vocational distance learning as well capacity building for the public employment

training centre to develop competency standards, and quality apprenticeship, emphasizing the importance of innovative technologies in national policies. Through virtual consultations, the project aims to help technical training institutions respond more directly to the needs of the industry and support national trade union confederations to develop a common position on skills development.

In the Philippines, the ILO supported adjustments to the national skills needs assessment to take account of the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of access. The ILO further helped shape the National Green Jobs human resource plan to make sure that it meet the skills needs for future more climate resilient jobs.

c Industry Skills for Inclusive Growth (InSIGHT)

c Building a culture of prevention on occupational safety and health (OSH)

c The Fund for Building Social Safety Nets in Asia and the Pacific

Recognizing the importance of social safety nets in Asia and the Pacific in responding to financial crisis, unemployment and natural disasters, the MHLW established the Fund for Building Social Safety Nets in Asia and the Pacific (SSN Fund) in 2011 in partnership with the ILO. A small-scale, but flexible

and rapid funding mechanism, the SSN Fund has supported around 60 projects to develop social protection schemes, improve occupational safety and health and promote employment through skills development and entrepreneurship in the region.

Since Asia and the Pacific is prone to natural hazards, the Fund also promotes enhanced resilience to natural crises by supporting livelihoods recovery and reconstruction activities. The Fund has been used to implement livelihood recovery and reconstruction programmes in the Pacific Island countries, Indonesia, India, Papua New Guinea and Sri Lanka. The flexible nature of the SSN Fund has allowed the ILO to respond quickly to address the socio-economic consequences of COVID-19, laying the groundwork for larger interventions in the coming months.

Every year around 2.8 million workers die from work-related injuries or illnesses in the world. The massive loss of life is estimated to represent almost four per cent of global annual GDP per year. Japan is a major partner in the ILO’s efforts to reverse this trend, especially in Asia and the Pacific.

A Japan-funded project in Cambodia is supporting the revision of national Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) policies, legislation and practices in the construction industry. Labour inspectors also benefit from ILO awareness-raising campaigns and trainings as part of the initiative through capacity building to government officials and social partners, empowering those who work in construction sites with information. The April 2020 World Day for Safety and Health event took place virtually due

to the pandemic and emphasized COVID-19 awareness raising and infection prevention measures.

In Myanmar, the National Occupational Safety and Health Training Centre, built with the financial support of the Japanese Government, is now operational and promoting safety and health in the workplace.

The ILO and the MHLW supported a global research project on anticipated needs for skilled workers in the digital economy. The ICT sector, like many others, is undergoing a deep transformation that calls for a highly skilled, digitally oriented workforce. However, there is an acute, global shortage of ICT specialists. Findings of the research, which was undertaken in seven countries, were compiled in a series of three research reports. To disseminate the research findings broadly, the project had planned to co-organize a global research seminar with the Sophia University of Japan to be held in Tokyo. Due to COVID-19, the seminar was held virtually and ultimately reached a larger global audience.

c The future of work in ICT: Tackling the global challenge of skills shortages

A key component of the cooperation between the ILO and the MHLW is the support to the ILO’s International Training Centre in Turin. Japanese experts have strengthened the technical expertise of the Centre’s learning events on employment and training policies and practices, occupational safety and health and labour inspections. At the same time, the experts have benefitted from international exposure and peer-to-peer exchanges and innovative, technology-enhanced adult learning methodologies. Cutting-edge digital learning and collaboration solutions are at the core of the Centre’s robust and agile response to the challenges faced by ILO constituents in the aftermath of COVID-19. Two further Japanese experts will join the Centre in 2021.

c Training programmes at the International Training Centre of the ILO

c ContactInternational Labour Organization4, Route des MorillonsCH-1211 Geneva-22 – Switzerland

T: +41 22 799 7239 F: +41 22 799 6668E: pardev@ilo.orgilo.org/pardev

Departmentof partnershipsand field support

In 2018, the ILO and the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Tokyo 2020) signed a partnership agreement to promote sustainability and advance socially responsible labour practices among the Games’ delivery partners. Annual Tokyo 2020–ILO Sustainability Fora, organised since 2017 in Tokyo with the active participation of ILO constituents, have raised awareness amongst the Games’ delivery partners on the labour dimension of Corporate Social Responsibility. This led to the development of a Handbook on Sustainable Sourcing for Tokyo 2020 and good practices to promote socially responsible labour practices. This unique collaboration constitutes the ILO’s first official

partnership with an Olympic and Paralympic Organizing Committee and Tokyo 2020’s first partnership with a UN organization.

This alliance is aligned with similar Japan-ILO initiatives, including the project ”More and better jobs through socially responsible practices in Pakistan”, which focuses on promoting decent work in the sporting goods manufacturing sector in Pakistan – a major supplier to not only the Olympics but also the football World Cup. In response to the pandemic, the partnership made ILO’s resource materials for businesses on COVID-19 widely available.

c Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games

c Improving water supply management to support peace in Mindanao

The ILO-Japan project in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in the Southern Philippines is working to create jobs while advocating for the Decent Work Agenda and improving access to safe water for over 11,000 households.

Using participatory and local resource-based approaches, the project recently completed a water system for more than 100 households, including 1,600 children. Additional water system construction work is ongoing at four other sites in the region. Through these infrastructure projects, the ILO promotes local employment opportunities with a focus on decent jobs.

In order to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on informal workers, a Community Emergency Employment programme is being implemented with BARMM’s Ministry of Labour and Employment,

stressing strict occupational safety and health protocols, complemented by the provision of 70 handwashing facilities. At least 1,800 workers benefit from formal wage employment and the corresponding social protection benefits.

c Rural Roads Accessibility and Jobs: Restoring access and improving resilience in Mozambique

In early 2019, central and northern Mozambique was hit by two consecutive tropical cyclones leaving 2.2 million people in need of urgent assistance. These natural disasters destroyed essential livelihoods and jobs, cut access to markets addition to damaging essential infrastructure.

With the support of Japan, the Mozambique Government and the ILO launched the “Rural Roads, Accessibility and Jobs” project to restore jobs in the most affected Province of Manica.

The project’s primary objective is to improve human security in the districts most affected by the cyclones through an innovative, employment-intensive approach to upgrade and repair tertiary roads essential for the delivery of humanitarian aid as well as to jumpstart the local economy. The project will strengthen local capacity for rebuilding disaster-resilient road infrastructure; maximize opportunities for productive employment for youth and other vulnerable groups; and mainstream employment-intensive road building technologies in the national road sector.