Japanese beverages giant Kirin – parent brewer of a suite of Australian beer brands such as XXXX, Tooheys, and James Squire – could pull out of the brewery it co-owns with the Myanmar military, after facing international condemnation for its business partnership with an army accused of genocide.

The company’s president and chief executive, Yoshinori Isozaki, said in a statement the company recognised the “challenges of operating in frontier markets” and was working to improve its practices.

“Human rights is fundamental to all of our business activities … we are reviewing strategic options for our operations in Myanmar.”

Kirin’s review of its partnership with the Myanmar military is being led by its international advisory board, whose members include Australians Sir Rod Eddington and Paula Dwyer.

Kirin owns a little over half of both Myanmar Brewery and Mandalay Brewery in partnership with Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd (MEHL), a conglomerate of the Myanmar military, accused of committing genocide in its persecution of the Rohingya ethnic and religious minority.

The business partnership with Kirin provides not only much-needed foreign currency for the isolated Myanmar military – which is subject to global arms embargoes – but also, crucially, is a source of international legitimacy.

Kirin was named in a United Nations fact-finding mission report as having donated money to the Myanmar military – known as the Tatmadaw.

The donations came at a time the military sought to raise money it then used in so-called “clearance operations” against the Rohingya, which included mass murder, including of children, gang rape, torching of villages in a scorched earth policy, and widespread systemic torture. Kirin has acknowledged making three donations but says much of the money was given to civilians for humanitarian purposes.

In addition to the direct donations, totalling about US$12,000 ($17,000), the report warned that Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited’s (MEHL) revenue was funnelled to the military, further enabling the armed forces’ crackdown against the country’s minority Rohingya.

The UN report said “any engagement in any form” with the Myanmar military was “indefensible”.

Isozaki said Kirin had met with the management of MEHL to discuss the UN fact-finding report.

“We have requested that MEHL provide Kirin with updated details on MEHL’s financial and governance structures.

“The Kirin Group takes its responsibilities in Myanmar seriously and will take necessary action to ensure our business activities in the region adhere to the highest standards. A further update on our position will be provided once Kirin has reviewed the information provided by MEHL.”

Australian craft beer brewer Lion Little World – a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kirin – faced criticism last year, when it took over a US craft brewer, over its parent company’s association with the Tatmadaw.

Lion Little World Beverages is the global craft beer division of Australasian brewer Lion, which brews beers such as XXXX, Tooheys, James Boag, James Squire and Little Creatures.

In December, the employee shareholders of New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado, approved its acquisition by Lion Little World.

The New Belgium chief executive, Kim Jordan, said the company was “dedicated to being a force for good”, but others in the Fort Collins community, and around the world, condemned the deal.

“The sale of New Belgium to the conglomerate of Lion Little World Beverages and Kirin is shameful,” the Fort Collins Community Action Network wrote in an open letter.

“You must certainly know that Kirin has been internationally condemned for its human rights abuses and connection to ethnic cleansing in Myanmar.”

Also in December, Myanmar’s civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi – whose father, the independence hero General Aung San, is regarded as the founder of the country’s military – appeared before the international court of justice in The Hague to respond to charges of genocide over the military’s campaign that drove 700,000 members of ethnic and religious minority Rohingya community to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh.

Suu Kyi acknowledged in court there may have been some war crimes or crimes against humanity but insisted they did not rise to the level of genocide. She also maintained Myanmar’s official line that the crackdown on the Rohingya was a legitimate military operation, not aimed at civilians but at armed Muslim militants in Rakhine state.

The UN fact-finding mission urged the international community to cut off all financial support to Myanmar’s military, saying its commanders needed to be isolated and brought before a credible court to answer charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

“The actions of the Tatmadaw (Burmese military) in Kachin, Rakhine and Shan states, in particular in the context of the ‘clearance operations’ in northern Rakhine state in 2016 and 2017, have so seriously violated international law that any engagement in any form with the Tatmadaw, its current leadership, and its businesses, is indefensible,” it said.