May 31, 2018 - Activists Push Japanese Banks to Divest from Fossil Fuel Projects

Marunouchi (Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo) – In solidarity with Japan-based water protectors, indigenous professor, journalist, and documentary filmmaker Myron Dewey MA (Walker River Paiute Nation) and indigenous inherent rights attorney William Patrick Kincaid (Cheyenne Nation ) meet with Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Representatives at the headquarters in Tokyo at 1pm on May 28, 2018.

Media are invited to meet outside MUFG from 2pm. The meeting with MUFG representatives is expected to last until 2pm.

MUFG is one of three major Japanese banks investing in the Dakota Access Pipeline including Mizuho Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, contributing a total of 1.5 billion US dollars to DAPL. These banks are signatories to the Equator Principal which the DAPL pipeline project they are funding violates on three accounts, environmental, occupational, and social.

Dewey and Kincaid intend to follow up with MUFG’s on its promise to conduct an independent environmental impact assessment. They will discuss findings and share information from Standing Rock. Dewey will also is also speak on behalf of the woman and children who have been raped and injured by men who have built the pipeline.

On February 17, 2017 a 11,000 signature petition was delivered by Ainu representatives to the three banks urging immediate divestment from the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Contact: Sakata Masako
+81-905308-2197 (Japanese language speaker- interpreter available)