On Xinjiang, Japan's brands hold their breath ahead of Biden-Suga

Uniqlo's Yanai says 'no comment,' but will halt business with human rights violators

Uniqlo's flagship store in Shanghai: Greater China, including Taiwan and Hong Kong, accounts for more than 20% of parent Fast Retailing's revenue. (Photo courtesy of Fast Retailing)

SUGURU KURIMOTO, NAOKI MATSUDA and HIROKO MATSUMOTO, Nikkei staff writers

April 9, 2021 02:33 JST

TOKYO/SHANGHAI -- At an earnings briefing on Thursday, Tadashi Yanai, president of Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing, insisted the Japanese apparel company was neutral when it came to politics.

"Of course if we find any human rights problems in any of our factories or cotton production, we immediately stop doing business" with such a supplier, Yanai said when asked by reporters on China's treatment of its Uyghur Muslim minority population in Xinjiang.