This book assesses EU-Japan security relations, examining how they have developed in individual security sectors and how they could be affected by international developments. The conclusions of the Economic Partnership Agreement and the Strategic Partnership Agreement in 2017 demonstrate the steady growth in EU-Japan political relations. Since the 1990s, dialogues between the EU and Japan have benefitted from extensive trade and investment ties and shared liberal values. Based on collaborative research by European and Japanese scholars, this book provides an in-depth, systematic and comparative analysis of the extent to which the EU and Japan have achieved concrete actions in the pursuance of security cooperation across a range of key areas such as nuclear proliferation, regional security, international terrorism, and energy and climate security. Further, it seeks to explain why some security sectors (such as economic and cybersecurity) have resulted in more extensive EU-Japan cooperation, while others lag behind (such as military and regional security). Common declarations and actions of shared interest and concerns have often led to only modest levels of security collaboration, and the book highlights factors that may be seen as intervening between intention and action, such as the role of external actors, for instance China and the US, and the constraints of internal EU and domestic Japanese politics. This book will be of much interest to students of European security, Japanese politics, diplomacy studies and international relations.

Both the European Union and Japan have been major beneficiaries and supporters of the liberal international order, first led by the United States since the end of World War II. During this period, they have emerged as global powers, however, the very order that nurtured their rise is now facing twin threats. First, through authoritarian China’s promotion of alternative models of global governance, and second from a crisis of liberalism, manifested in the policies of President Donald Trump and Brexit. This book explores these challenges faced by both the EU and Japan, providing a multidisciplinary approach to studying the relationship between the two. It analyses their cooperation in terms of security, defence and trade and examines how their shared normative values are ultimately implemented. Having recently concluded an Economic Partnership Agreement and with a Strategic Partnership Agreement in the pipeline, this book asks whether they can convert their latent and modest cooperation into an alternative form of leadership and an antidote to the illiberal tide sweeping the developed world? As the first book to shed light on the new Economic Partnership Agreement between the EU and Japan, this book will be useful to students and scholars of Japanese Studies, as well as European Union politics and international political economy more generally.

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.

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.

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.