Within their partnership, the EU and Japan recognise each other as being essentially civilian (or ‘soft’) powers that share the same values and act in the international arena solely with diplomatic means. However, the evolution of the threats they face and the unpredictability now shown by their strategic ally, the US, have led both the EU and Japan to reconsider the option of ‘soft power-only’ for ensuring their security. They have both begun the — albeit long —process of seeking greater strategic autonomy. The EU’s Global Strategy adopted in 2016 aims clearly to ‘develop a more politically rounded approach to Asia, seeking to make greater practical contributions to Asian security’. Like the EU, Japan has identified ‘a multipolar age’ in which the rules-based international order that has allowed it to prosper is increasingly threatened. In line with its security-related reforms, Japan has decided to ‘take greater responsibilities and roles than before in order to maintain the existing international order’ and resolve a number of global issues. The EU and Japan may increase their cooperation at the global and strategic level and in tackling these challenges at the regional or local level. The Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) between the EU and Japan will provide opportunities for such cooperation, which should also be open to others. This is an opportunity for the EU to demonstrate that it is a consistent and reliable partner, and a true ‘global player’. The Council Conclusions of 28 May 2018 on ‘Enhanced security cooperation in and with Asia’ are a step in this direction but need to be translated into action.

Relations between the EU and East Asia have consistently expanded in recent years, particularly between the EU and Japan. Against the background of negotiations on an economic and strategic partnership agreement, the EU–Japan relationship is set to become the single most comprehensive ‘region-to-state’ relationship the world has known today, accounting for more than a third of world GDP and a combined population of more than 600 million people. This book addresses the potential role of the EU, in cooperation with Japan, to craft a stable and prosperous mode of governance in the Asian region. In today’s globalized world seemingly defined by waxing Chinese power and waning American power, the book reflects the lack of appreciation for an EU-Japan concert in maintaining and developing multilateral principles. It aims towards fortifying this relationship by acknowledging that in order to enhance the credibility and capabilities of such an alliance, it is necessary to take stock of where the partnership stands today, what kind of obstacles still need to be overcome and which options have been left untouched. By introducing state-of-the-art empirical research in multiple fields, this book will be of key interest to students and scholars of international relations, comparative regionalism, the European Union and Japanese politics.

This volume provides a timely and expert analysis of Japan's Asia policy as the country continues to address the future through trying to cope with the burden of a chequered past. Dr Mendl locates his expostion of Japan's policy towards both North-East and South-East Asia in a full historical and cultural context and importantly takes due account of the underlying and potent factor of national identity in shaping international outlook. He begins his study with a discussion of the enigma of Japanese policy expressed in debate over whether or not that policy expresses a calculated grand design. A corresponding enigma emerges in Dr Mendl's exposition of Japan's policy towards a part of the world with which it shares a geographical location and a measure of identity but one which, he maintains, cannot be separated from its engagement at the global level. In exploring the theme of how Japan is confronted by the problem of reconcling its relations with Asia with pursuing a global role in unchartered post-Cold War waters, Dr.Mendl makes a lucid and scholarly contribution to the debate about Japan's place in a world which it has helped to shape through its economic performance and example.

Een onderzoek naar de veiligheidsdialoog tussen Japan en EU vanaf de jaren vijftig van de vorige eeuw tot op heden.

Presenting the history of relations between the European Union and Japan, this book explains the origins and significance of the momentous 2018 Economic Partnership Agreement and its parallel Strategic Partnership Agreement. Set within the historical context of the 1991 Hague Declaration and Action Plan of 2001, this book analyses the impact of recent background changes to the liberal trading order, the proliferation of free trade agreements, and uncertainty about role of the United States in the world on relations between Japan and the EU. Adopting a path-dependent approach, it illustrates how these agreements were reached as a result of growing patterns of cooperative behaviour between the EU and Japan, and the imprint of shared past experiences in areas from trade to security. In so doing, this book also raises important questions about the future of multilateral cooperation, exploring the potential for bilateral agreements to undermine the possibility of finding international solutions to increasingly international problems. EU–Japan Relations and the Crisis of Multilateralism will appeal to students and scholars of European and Japanese politics and international relations, as well as policymakers internationally with an interest in these significant agreements.

The EU and Japan have one of the most important trade relationships in the world. Fittingly, this book presents a detailed analysis of their bilateral regulatory environment and negotiation processes. Moreover, the two polities have also co-operated extensively in bilateral and multilateral contexts on a range of global governance issues. Nevertheless, the relationship is widely acknowledged to have significant untapped potential. Deploying the concept of civilian power, the book takes a fresh, honest and provocative look at this important relationship, in a post-Fukushima, post-sovereign debt crisis world. First the book analyses the place of EU-Japan relations within the worldviews of the Japanese and European bodies politic. Subsequently, three thematic sections evaluate their cooperation on such issues as trade, energy security, environmental politics, development, human rights, post-conflict reconstruction, health and biosecurity. The eminent scholars of the EU-Japan relationship gathered in this book offer informed, empirically rich and policy-relevant insights into the present and future prospects for the relationship.

After decades of solely relying on the United States for its national security needs, over the last decade, Japan has begun to actively develop and deepen its security ties with a growing number of countries and actors in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe, a development that has further intensified under the Shinzo Abe administration. This is the first book that provides a comprehensive analysis of the motives and objectives from both the Japanese and the partner-countries’ perspectives, and asks what this might mean for the security architecture in the Asia-Pacific region, and what lessons can be learned for security cooperation more broadly. This book is for those interested in Japan’s security policy beyond the US-Japan security alliance, and non-US centred bilateral and multilateral security cooperation. It is an ideal textbook for undergraduate and graduate level courses on regional security cooperation and strategic partnerships, and Japanese foreign and security policy.