Japan Eyes Foreign Bank Financing for U.S. Investment Pledge

Tokyo, July 27 (Jiji Press)–Japan is considering accepting financing from foreign banks for the construction of natural gas-fired power plants in the United States, which was included in its investment and loan pledge to the U.S. government, the Finance Ministry has said. The ministry unveiled the plan in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Sunday night. Foreign banks may participate in the gas-fired power plant construction project through syndicated loans arranged with the government-backed Japan Bank for International Cooperation, or JBIC, while state-backed Nippon Export and Investment Insurance, or NEXI, may provide loan guarantees to the foreign banks. The move came after concerns emerged that Japan’s three megabanks alone would face difficulty providing the massive amount of U.S. dollar funding required to fulfill its investment and loan pledge under the bilateral tariff agreement. Participation by foreign banks “would make foreign-currency procurement smoother,” the ministry said. Media reports have said U.S. lenders including Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are expected to participate in the financing. The tariff agreement reached in July 2025 included an investment and loan pledge by Japan of up to 550 billion dollars to the United States. The gas-fired power plant construction project was featured in the second round of investment projects announced in March this year, with the total scale of the projects expected to reach up to 730 billion dollars, together with the construction of next-generation nuclear power plants. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]