Conclusion

Abstract

The preceding chapters have shown how representatives of the Japanese government and the European Union now meet in a wide range of bilateral, regional and global forums. These different levels of interaction influence bilateral Japan-EU relations in different ways within a changing international environment, which has placed new pressures upon their own foreign policy structures as well as upon the regional and global institutions in which they jointly interact. These pressures have been intensified by a growing number of activities which are pursued at non-governmental level, and which are reflected in government responses to them. Over time, Japan and the member states of the European Union have expanded their initial areas of ad hoc interaction into a set of relations that today are recognized explicitly within the formalized boundaries of the ‘Japan-EU dialogue’. Within this ‘institutionalized’ structure, Japan and the EU have begun to establish and make use of a repertoire of issues that their relationship is best equipped to address. Many of the relevant issues have become salient since the ending of the Cold War and are likely to dominate the agenda of international organizations at the start of the new millennium. This conclusion examines the ways in which their intensified bilateral dialogue is suited to deal with the imperatives of the complex environment in which it exists at the beginning of the twenty-first century.