EU relation with Japan

Latest News

26/04/2013 - Catherine Ashton on the recent executions in Japan
19/04/2013 - First Round of EU-Japan Trade Talks A Success
25/03/2013 - EU-Japan: forging closer cooperation in disaster management

Mount Fuji 富士山

As advanced, industrialised democracies, the EU and Japan have many common interests and values. The scope of the overall relationship has broadened in recent years along the lines of the 2001 Action Plan [167 KB] and now goes far beyond the earlier trade-related focus of the 1970’s and 1980’s.

New agreements

The EU and Japan are currently working towards new agreements:

a Framework Agreement covering not only political dialogue and policy cooperation, but also cooperation on regional and global challenges

a Free Trade Agreement to stimulate growth on both sides, and with cooperation at all levels up to EU - Japan Summit meetings covering foreign policy, economic and trade relations, and regional and global challenges.

Ongoing policy dialogue

The EU has an ongoing dialogue with Japan on a variety of policy areas: environment, information society, science & technology, trade, financial services and industrial policy.

Multilateral cooperation

The EU cooperates closely with Japan in international and multilateral fora such as the UN, WTO, and the G8.

Business, academic and civil-society contacts

These are promoted by EU Institutes in Japan and cooperative education and business initiatives. Several programmes offer training in Japan to European executives.

European External Action Service