Last year, Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) discovered 27 factories in China that reportedly used Uyghurs’ forced labour. According to ASPI, these factories / camps were part of the supply chain of 82 leading global brands, including Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. This week, Nintendo denied forced labour being used in its supply chain.
As spotted by VGC, a shareholder brought up the issue with Nintendo’s board members during a Q&A at its General Meeting of Shareholders.
“We are aware that there was a report that Uyghurs may have been forced to work in the factories of our supply chain,” Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said (as translated by VGC). “However, as far as we have investigated the factory pointed out in the report, we could not find any record that it is our business partner, nor have we received any reports of forced labour in our supply chain.”
Furukawa added that Nintendo established CSR Procurement Guidelines to make sure that forced labour is not used in the company’s supply chain. According to him, Nintendo is committed to “ethical policies regarding manufacturing, labour and sourcing.”