О роли Японии в политике Европейского Союза

Современная Европа. 2019. № 1. С. 113–118.

Chizhevskaya M.

This article is devoted to the role of Japan as a “strategic partner” of the EU in East Asia. The article analyzes evolution of the Japan’s role in the EU’s policy towards East Asia, compares the scope of cooperation between the EU and its three main partners in the region – China, Japan and South Korea. The author comes to the conclusion that the main partner in the region for the EU is China, although there are considerable divergences between them in the area of political norms and values. The position of the EU appears to be ambivalent: putting consolidation of norms and rules among the third countries as a key element of its foreign policy, in East Asia the EU relies not on the like-minded partner, which is deemed to be Japan, but on the most economically powerful partner, thus preferring economic interests to the idealistic ones. Japan, which, along with the EU, is called “normative power”, appears to be on the sideline of the EU’s priorities in the region and is equaled in significance with South Korea as a “natural political partner”. Such a choice seems to be rational, but puts under question the liberal-idealistic self-identification of the EU as a “normative power”.

Keywords: Европейский Союз, Япония, European Union, Japan, Восточная Азия, East Asia, нормативная сила, normative power, EU-Japan relations, японо-европейские отношения