Last year brought both the re-election of Donald Trump as US president and a newly minted European Commission in Brussels. As a result, Europe faces new uncertainties, particularly in trade, technology and defence co-operation with the US, but has also gained an unprecedented opportunity to strengthen co-operation with other allies, namely Japan.
The EU and Japan are moving quickly. On 1 November 2024, they announced a new security and defence partnership in Tokyo. The pact foresees more joint exercises, high-level dialogue and co-operation in the defence industry.
While the EU has enhanced security co-operation with Australia, New Zealand and South Korea, the new agreement with Japan is the first of its kind with an Asia-Pacific country – and the most strategically significant.
For Europe, Japan might be the ally to engage with as the world confronts escalating competition between the US and China. Both facing parallel economic security, trade and defence challenges.
Trade ties, strengthened by the 2019 Free Trade Agreement, illustrate the size of EU-Japan co-operation, with over €58bn worth of goods and €28bn of services provided to Japan by the EU.
Conversely, Japan is the EU's second largest trading partner, contributing key services, technologies and innovation. After the pandemic, and amid current geopolitical instability in Europe and the Pacific, EU-Japan co-operation has expanded to include strategic sectors including security, defence and technology.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted the EU and Japan to recognise the need for a robust strategic posture, focused on scaling up defence capacities and broadening partnerships. Japan has also witnessed growing Chinese antagonism in the East and South China Seas plus repeated threats to the territorial integrity of Taiwan, forcing Tokyo to shift its foreign policy.
With increasing North Korean ballistic missile tests and recent Russian aircraft airspace violations, the understanding that the security of Europe and the Indo-Pacific are interconnected has never been clearer.
In volatile times, building on an existing partnership is easier than starting from scratch. In recent years, many European countries have shown their commitment to the security of the Indo-Pacific. Countries like Germany, Italy, France and the Netherlands have conducted military drills and patrolling activities with the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force, which also supported the EU-led anti-piracy mission.
The appointment of Europe’s first-ever defence and space commissioner, Andrius Kubilius, highlight’s the EU’s growing focus on security. Over the next five years, strengthening the partnership between the EU and Japan to achieve common strategic objectives will be crucial.
The EU and Japan also share the challenge of accessing critical raw materials, both relying on China, which uses export restrictions to gain leverage. Between 2009 and 2020, Beijing restrictions on mineral exports increased ninefold. However, , Japan is strengthening its supply chains by investing in overseas mining projects and improving its processing industry.
Incoming Commissioner for Trade and Security Maroš Šefčovič has noted that the EU can draw inspiration from the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security. The department is responsible for building up strategic rare metals stocks, following China’s export ban on rare earth minerals in 2010. The EU must follow suit. Before the EU’s “open strategic autonomy”, Tokyo had already pursued the concept of “strategic indispensability” for key manufacturing processes.
The EU is aware of the challenges it faces – war on its doorstep, declining competitiveness and resurging Trump’s isolationism. As global interdependence will not dissolve overnight, Europe must look not only inward but outward, sticking close to allies like Japan that face similar geopolitical and economic security challenges, fostering fruitful, mutually beneficial co-operation.