By As the world’s third largest economy, there can be no underestimating the role that Japan can and will play in the global energy transition. And yet, Japanese financial institutions are among the world’s top funders of both fossil fuels and forest-risk commodities — making them a critical leverage point in the fight for a just and sustainable future.
Two decades ago, RAN established a small team in Tokyo with a bold vision: to hold some of the world’s most powerful financial institutions accountable for their global environmental and human rights impacts. Today, that vision is evolving into a powerful force for change. With expanded capacity and experienced leadership, RAN Japan is entering a new chapter — one that reflects our overarching goals to expand the regional focus of our work, and strengthen our cross-programmatic strategies.
Whether it’s connecting US Gulf South communities resisting LNG terminals to the banks funding them, or exposing how Japanese financing drives deforestation in Indonesia, RAN’s campaigning in Japan represents the nexus of all three of our program areas: keeping forests standing, preventing the expansion of fossil fuels, and defending human rights.
Our strategy is built around a tiered markets campaign approach in alignment with our theory of change:
- Research, Data, and Publications: Our in-depth research provides incontrovertible proof that global financiers are responsible for driving climate chaos and forest destruction, serves as an invaluable campaign resource for the Japanese and global finance movements, and is a tool for directly engaging banks. Our flagship reports are translated into Japanese and pushed to Japanese media to support our campaign efforts in the region.
- Corporate Engagement: In October 2024, RAN Japan hosted a delegation of Tribal and community leaders who traveled from Rio Grande Valley (RGV), Texas to Tokyo to meet with Japanese financial institutions associated with the methane gas projects in the southern Gulf Coast region of the US. Delegates met with the Japanese megabanks and other institutions.
- Shareholder Activism: Over the past several years, RAN and partners have honed a highly effective strategy of shareholder activism at the Japan megabanks’ Annual General Meetings (AGMs),attending AGMs and introducing shareholder proposals that can drive policy improvements.
- Outside Public Pressure: Our focus this year has been on more movement building in Japan, both in streets and online — including hosting an educational webinar about the role of Japanese financial institutions in fossil fuel expansion — especially methane projects —, and engaging RAN supporters in this work.
- Communications and Media: We continue to focus on educating the Japanese media on the critical importance of the climate, deforestation, and human rights crises that are, in very large part, driven by Japanese financiers. The Japanese media can plan a pivotal role in popularizing the facts that RAN is bringing to the movement, and add public pressure on the megabanks.
Big Vision, Big Impact
While US financial institutions remain resistant to transformative climate commitments and have backtracked on previous policies, we have seen incredible progress as a result of our pressure on Japanese megabanks that has continued to build over the last several years.
- Increased Shareholder Pressure: In 2023, all three Japanese megabanks faced shareholder proposals at the same time, and nearly 20% of shareholders at MUFG alone supported adoption and disclosure of greenhouse emission reduction targets. Last year, as a result of increased pressure from the RAN Japan team and partners, shareholder resolution support increased another 20%. While shareholder support declined in this year’s AGM — likely due to the growing anti-ESG movement — RAN and our partners remain committed to engaging with and increasing pressure on all three megabanks.
- Milestone Wins from Tokyo to Texas: After sending a delegation of RAN staff and frontline partners to meet with Japanese financial institutions about their role in financing the methane terminal buildouts in the Rio Grande Valley, we were able to verify that MUFG representatives arranged a site visit in November. Additionally SOMPO insurance worked on creating a company-wide Indigenous rights policy focused on Free, Prior, Informed Consent (FPIC), which they released at the beginning of this year 1.
- Curbing Deforestation: In addition to all three Japanese megabanks (MUFG, Mizuho, SMBC) adopting ‘No Deforestation, No Peat, and No Exploitation’ (NDPE) policies in July of 2024. MUFG is also taking steps to exclude some financing of palm oil and wood pulp projects2.
- Changing the Narrative, Across the Globe: As we increasingly amplify the significance of Japanese banks’ role in fueling climate chaos (like in our flagship reports Banking on Climate Chaos and Banking on Biodiversity Collapse) and produce new investigative reports, such as a report released this April proving that MUFG has been violating its own sustainability commitments, our message is being heard loud and clear. RAN has been named by Nikkei — Japan’s leading financial newspaper — as one of the top NGO influencers in Japan.
As we look ahead, the expansion of RAN Japan is not only an organizational milestone, it’s a symbol of our willingness and ability to continuously evolve our strategy, expand our campaigns, and increase our influence where it has the greatest impact.
- https://www.sompo-hd.com/en/csr/esg/product/
- https://www.mufg.jp/dam/ir/fixed_income/greenbond/pdf/fw202407_en.pdf
