The divestiture from Falcon, which runs 2.23 gigawatts (GW) of gas-fired plants, comes amid a growing global trend away from fossil fuels in the race to cut harmful carbon dioxide emissions and slow climate change.

Trading house Mitsui, which has a stake of 40% in MT Falcon, said the deal followed a review of its asset portfolio. It plans to book a loss of 7.8 billion yen ($71 million) from the sale in the current financial year ending March 31, it added.

City gas provider Tokyo Gas, which holds a stake of 30% in the project, and Japan's biggest power generator JERA, the owner of a 20% stake, said their decisions were also part of portfolio reviews, but declined to comment on financial impact.

Tohoku Electric Power, which has a stake of 10% in the project, confirmed the plan, but did not comment on the reason or its financial impact.

Mitsui and JERA decided this year to sell their stakes in Indonesia's PT Paiton Energy, which runs coal power plants.

JERA is a joint venture of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc and Chubu Electric Power Co Inc.

($1=109.2800 yen)

(Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)