ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to assess whether Europe and Japan are capable of developing a truly strategic security partnership. It analyses the main geopolitical development that will impact the European Union (EU)-Japan relationship – European and Japanese mutual defence ally, the United States (US), under President Donald Trump. The chapter evaluates the prospects for the EU and Japan to cooperate on security at the multilateral level through the framework of human security. It reviews Japan's quest to develop security ties with key EU member states the UK, France and Germany. The chapter concludes endeavours to tie-up Europe-Japan security cooperation and provide a realistic assessment of whether Europe and Japan would be able to share and uphold a strategic security partnership. Japan's quest for genuinely strategic security partnerships is likely to find few takers in Europe. With its mutual defence alliance with the US, Japan has set its expectations too high.
