Japanese beer company effectively ‘empowers’ junta through its joint ventures, rights group says
Human rights groups have urged Japanese brewing giant Kirin, the multinational behind beer brands XXXX, Tooheys, Kirin, and Little Creatures, to cut ties with its Myanmar business operations, alleging its continued part-ownership of two military-linked breweries there makes it effectively complicit in war crimes committed by the military in Myanmar.
The company owns just over half of of both Myanmar Brewery and Mandalay Brewery in partnership with Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd (MEHL), a company controlled by the country’s military that a UN investigation has found is overseen by the commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.
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