Welcome by the Chair

Welcome to the website of the Delegation for Relations with Japan. The Delegation was formed in 1979 and since then has held annual Inter-parliamentary meetings (IPMs) with its counterparts from the Japanese Diet.

Japan is a key strategic and like-minded partner of the European Union. We share a commitment to rules-based and multilateral global governance, as well as to defending the rule of law, democracy and human rights. We have a shared interest in closely cooperating together in order to tackle the global challenges facing us in the 21st century. The environment, climate change, security and defence, development and crisis management are areas of the utmost importance to the EU and Japan. Both partners seek a peaceful solution for a complete, verifiable and irreversible de-nuclearisation of North Korea and wish to achieve peace and security for the Korean peninsula.

In December 2018, the Parliament gave its consent to the EU-Japan Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) and the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). The EPA, the largest Free Trade Agreement ever concluded, entered into force on 1 February 2019. The provisional application of the political framework agreement SPA started on the same date. The SPA, among others, foresees strengthening of the parliamentary dimension in the strategic partnership.