About the Research

To investigate investment in the fossil fuel sector, 17 Japanese fossil fuel related companies were selected for research, based on their inclusion in the top 7 of either coal, oil and gas related companies ranked by the carbon content of their fossil fuel reserves. In addition, 10 companies involved in the expansion of domestic coal-fired power plants ranked by the greatest capacity of planned installations were also included in the research. To examine investments in the nuclear sector, 3 nuclear plant manufacturers and 3 owners of domestic nuclear plants were selected, in addition to 6 electric companies owning nuclear plants that were also included in the domestic coal expansion list.

145 Japanese retail banks and 15 Japanese institutional investors were selected to be included in this research to give a broad picture of the extent of investment by Japanese financial institutions in the fossil fuel and nuclear powers and to identify financial institutions that are effectively free of investments in these industries. The lists of selected banks and institutional investors are provided in section 1.1. Overall, financing in 23 selected companies engaged in the fossil fuel and nuclear power sector by 145 Japanese banks and 15 Japanese institutional investors was examined.

Financial databases were used to identify all known corporate loans, underwritings, bondholdings and shareholdings of the selected Japanese financial institutions in the selected companies engaged in the fossil fuel and nuclear power sector, over the period January 2011 to April 2016.