Compliance (コンプライアンス) means acting fairly by obeying laws and regulations first and foremost, while also following the rules an organization or industry has set for itself, social norms and corporate ethics.
Examples of what compliance covers
Laws and regulations
Rules set by the organization or industry itself
Social norms and corporate ethics
Japanese often renders it as 法令遵守 (literally, observing laws and regulations), but today simply obeying what statutes say is not considered enough. When a violation comes to light, the company faces not only penalties but also a loss of trust and customers.
AnalogyIt is like an athlete who not only follows the rules of the game but also values the spirit of fair play that no rulebook spells out. Even without breaking a rule, playing dirty costs the trust of the crowd.
How to rememberThe Japanese term is simply the English word, the noun form of comply (to go along with a demand or rule).
Exam points
ExamWhat compliance (コンプライアンス) requires you to observe is not limited to laws: it also extends to rules an organization or industry sets for itself and to the common sense and ethics shared in society.
ExamPromoting compliance means not leaving established norms to individual good intentions, but working so that they keep being followed across the organization.
ExamJapan's Companies Act (会社法) requires large companies and certain others to set up systems that ensure directors (取締役) carry out their duties in compliance with laws and regulations.
Business and human rights (ビジネスと人権) is the idea that a company is responsible for respecting human rights and preventing harm to them across all of its business activities, including those involving its business partners, not just within its own walls.
Identify and assess adverse impacts
Prevent and mitigate
Track effectiveness
Communicate and disclose
Explain the efforts and their results outside the company, and feed them into the next round of checks.
4 / 4
In 2011 the UN Human Rights Council endorsed the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, making the corporate responsibility to respect human rights an international baseline. The Japanese government adopted a national action plan in 2020 (revised in 2025) and published guidelines for companies in 2022. The core practice is human rights due diligence (人権デューディリジェンス): an ongoing cycle of identifying and preventing adverse impacts, checking the results and explaining them externally.
AnalogyIt is like a restaurant that cares not only about its own staff but also about whether the farmers growing its ingredients are being overworked. It looks past the plate to the people behind it.
How to rememberThe Guiding Principles are also called the Ruggie Principles, after John Ruggie, the UN Special Representative who drew them up.
Exam points
Mix-upBusiness and human rights (ビジネスと人権) is separate from social contributions made outside the business: it deals with the responsibility to prevent the harm the business itself does to people.
Harassment (ハラスメント) is mistreatment, at work or elsewhere, that uses position or conduct to hurt another person's dignity, put them at a disadvantage or damage their work environment.
Example type
What it involves
Power harassment
Using an advantageous relationship at work to act beyond what is necessary and appropriate for the job, damaging the work environment
Sexual harassment
Sexual remarks or conduct that put someone at a disadvantage or damage the work environment
Maternity harassment
Mistreatment or unfavorable treatment because of pregnancy, childbirth, childcare leave and the like
Even without ill intent, conduct can count as harassment depending on what was said or done and its effect on the person receiving it. Under the amended Act on Comprehensive Promotion of Labor Policies, in force from 2020, employers must take measures to prevent power harassment (パワーハラスメント), with small and medium-sized employers covered from April 2022. Typical measures include setting up a consultation desk, making the policy known and running training.
How to rememberThe English verb harass means to bother someone persistently, and Japanese borrowed its noun form, harassment, as is.
Exam points
Mix-upGuidance given within a range that is necessary and appropriate for the job does not count as power harassment (パワーハラスメント), even when it is strict.
Business and Human Rights vs. Harassment
Aspect
Business and Human Rights
Harassment
Key differenceScope
How the whole business, including business partners, affects human rights
Individual conduct at work and elsewhere
Who bears responsibility
The company bears the responsibility to respect human rights
The perpetrator's conduct is the problem, and the employer must take preventive measures
ELSI is a way of looking together at the ethical, legal and social issues that come with researching, developing and using new science and technology.
It stands for Ethical, Legal and Social Issues (or Implications, in English-speaking countries), and it became widely known when the Human Genome Project, launched in 1990, set aside part of its research budget to study these issues. Today it is used in fields such as AI and genome editing, where laws and social rules have not caught up with the technology. It stresses examining these questions early in research and development rather than dealing with problems after a technology has spread.
AnalogyIt is like checking a new kind of vehicle before letting it onto city streets: not just how well it performs, but whether it could hurt people, whether it is legal and whether it will disrupt daily life in town.
How to rememberIn Japanese it is read エルシー, like the name Elsie.
Compliance vs. ELSI
Aspect
Compliance
ELSI
Key differenceCentral question
Are existing laws and norms being followed?
How should issues from new technology be handled before norms exist?
Target
All activities of a company or organization
Research and development of science and technology, and its use in society
A social media policy (ソーシャルメディアポリシー) is a policy that sets out the guidelines and rules an organization and its members follow when using social media.
Its aims include preventing information leaks, defamation of others and online backlash caused by misleading posts. Besides serving as an internal rule, it is sometimes published as a document showing how the organization approaches social media.
AnalogyIt is like a handbook of dos and don'ts for social media that a company hands out to staff. Deciding in advance what can and cannot be posted prevents trouble from careless posts.
Compliance means acting in line with laws first and foremost, along with voluntary rules, social norms and ethics, and the organization pursues it continuously rather than leaving it to individuals.
Building on the UN Guiding Principles, companies are responsible for preventing adverse human rights impacts, including through their business partners, and the core practice for this is human rights due diligence.
Harassment can occur even without ill intent, and the law requires employers to take measures against power harassment and similar conduct.
ELSI views the issues raised by new technology from three angles (ethical, legal and social) and examines them from the early stages of research and development.
A social media policy sets out in advance the guidelines and rules for using social media, to prevent information leaks and online backlash.