"Japan Bank for International Cooperation Launches Investigation of Freeport LNG Following Community Complaints" 4 September 2026

The Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) has decided to investigate complaints filed by three Texas community leaders over its financing of the Freeport Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) export project...

The complaints, delivered directly to Japanese financiers in Tokyo this May, document evidence of pollution, repeated safety and operational failures... Japanese public finance institutions have provided nearly $3.8 billion to support the project, including a $2.6 billion loan from JBIC. Community leaders say the decision to continue financing ignores both the evidence presented in the complaints and JBIC’s own environmental and social guidelines. 

Longtime residents and community leaders ... have seen families and neighbors develop asthma, cancer, and die prematurely following exposure to toxic pollution created by petrochemical and LNG facilities. In 2022, ... [LNG] explosion injured those nearby and released almost 120,000 cubic feet of LNG.

Community leaders are yet to receive a response from Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI), another Japanese public institution named in the complaint...