ABSTRACT
Relatively little ground exists for EU–Japan cooperation in the field of migration management, especially when discussed within the context of security cooperation. The chapter first describes how threat perceptions of migration diverge: the EU perceives an asylum crisis since the Arab Spring and the Syrian crisis. Japan has low immigration while the Japanese public links immigrants to crime. This divergence has led to dissimilar migration policies. The EU has securitised the flow of asylum seekers and refugees using Frontex to strengthen border controls in the Mediterranean. Japan has enacted the Immigration Control Act. The lack of convergence in migration affairs has led to limited EU–Japan cooperation apart from harmonisation of migration governance strategies in multilateral fora, such as the UN, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Global Forum on Migration and Development. The chapter concludes that a potential way forward for cooperation could be based on further multilateral actions through international organisations. Specifically, the conclusion acknowledges policy coherence for development as a norm through which convergence and cooperation could evolve.
