ABSTRACT
The concluding chapter provides a systematic and comparative analysis across the 12 security dimensions based on the findings from the individual chapters and an expert survey. The analysis follows the criteria stipulated for the investigation: the nature of threat perceptions and responses, the levels of convergence in policy responses, and the extent of bilateral and multilateral security cooperation between the EU and Japan. It pays specific attention to temporal patterns identifying three periods with distinct intentionality marked by the 1991 Joint Declaration, the 2001 Action Plan, and the 2017 Economic Partnership and Strategic Partnership Agreements. It highlights the importance of the EU Global Strategy and the evolving CSDP, as well as Japan’s reinterpretation of Article 9. Further, it explores the impact of geopolitical change, such as North Korea nuclear programme, Trump’s America First Policy, and more assertive foreign policy stances by Russia and China. The chapter concludes that significant institutional developments, both internal to the EU and Japan as well the EPA and SPA, have opened new horizons in EU–Japan security cooperation, but their realisation is still very much dependent on external factors.
