NEWS News

On Thursday, September 7, 2023, the first general membership meeting and workshop for fiscal year 2023 was held at the TKP Tokyo Station Conference Center. The meeting was held in a hybrid format, with 23 regular members (38 people) and 2 supporting members (3 people) participating in person, and many participating online.

The Practical Training included sharing the status of each company's efforts and issues, group discussions on the possibility of collective action on structural issues, and a lecture by Attorney Ibusuki titled "Protection of Workers in the Supply Chain and Expectations of Companies".

Participants shared a variety of issues and difficulties they had encountered in their respective companies' efforts, such as insufficient publicity about joining JaCER, setting up multiple contact points and determining the roles and targets of each, but whistleblowers do not take such circumstances into account, difficulties in internal coordination, and difficulty in gaining understanding within their own companies. The participants shared their various challenges and difficulties.

The discussion on structural issues and collective action was divided into four groups. In common with all groups, the technical intern issue and gender inequality were pointed out as structural issues. There were also comments on how far common actions can be taken in relation to the Antimonopoly Law and a request for JaCER to take the lead in creating guidelines.

Finally, regarding the lecture, Attorney Ibusuki explained about the technical intern issue in Japan, using specific examples. Attendees asked many questions, including questions about good examples and making the complaint counter known to the public, which Attorney Ibusuki answered in detail.

At the General Membership Meeting, the Institute gave explanations on the draft of the Members' Code of Conduct, modification of the complaint handling operation, and follow-up of the initial review report, respectively. Regarding the Code of Conduct, one participant commented that they would like to see enhanced information disclosure.