The promotion of human rights in the external relations of the European Union and Japan: perspectives for future cooperation

Abstract

During the recent years, significant events such as Brexit, the election of President Donald Trump, the economic war between China and the United States, led to a transformation of the global scenario and the necessity for leaders around the world to question themselves about who they can trust, and which alliances they can build. Furthermore, the centrality attributed to the human being has imposed countries to revise the contents of their cooperation policies, giving further space to human rights, democracy, and rule of law. For decades, the European Union’s relationship with Japan has ignored this aspect, being focused specifically on economic interests, crowned by the implementation of an Economic Partnership Agreement, entered into force in 2019. This dissertation aims to demonstrate the potentiality of a renewed relationship between the European Union and Japan, putting human rights at the core, to fill the “expectation-capability gap” that has for a long time blocked the possibility to enhance a deeper collaboration between the two territories. By gathering the human rights mainstreaming power of the European Union on one side and the proofed resilience of Japan on the other, the EU and the Land of Rising Sun have the power to foster social, economic, political, and specific categories of human rights – namely, women’s rights – not only in their bilateral relations, but also in the territories more in need around the world.