Japan is back: Is Europe ready?

Since the dramatic conclusion of World War II, Europe and Japan have been bound by their long-standing belonging to the ‘wider West’, sharing common values and interests such as democracy and the rule of law, market economy and political and economic multilateralism.

Despite occasional low-points due to ‘trade wars’ in the 1970s and 1980s, and the inherent difficulty in fully connecting the various policies of two players at the opposite edges of Eurasia, relations between Europe and J...