ABSTRACT
What provided the EU and Japan with an additional incentive to forge ahead with their own Economic Partnership Agreement was undoubtedly President Trump’s withdrawal of US participation from envisioned free trade agreements between the US and the EU, as well as the US and Japan. To counter Trump’s protectionism and ill-fated so-called ‘America First’ policies and China’s increasing influence on shaping the quality of international trade, the EU and Japan recognized a necessity to increase bilateral trade. Trump’s illiberalism has left Japan and the EU the largest actors still promoting a world order built on liberal ideas. There is enormous potential for further EU–Japan cooperation in such fields as security, defence production, development cooperation, in pushing for common normative values, and working multilaterally. The volume concludes that the EU and Japan have still far from realizing the full potential of their relationship. To do so they will need to address the deficits in their leadership capacity and vision.
