The Japan Chair was established in October 2022, as the first and only such initiative in continental Europe. Following up on the work started by the Japan Program since 2020, the Japan Chair serves as an independent platform to advance academically rigorous discussions on geostrategic developments in Asia and the Indo-Pacific region, enhance awareness of Tokyo’s foreign and security policy, inform and shape the policy agenda confronting the Japanese and European leadership and promote political and security cooperation between Japan and Europe, focusing specifically on the EU and NATO.

The establishment of the Japan Chair marks the growing rapprochement between Europe and Japan. The conclusion of the EU-Japan Economic and Strategic Partnership Agreements in 2018 highlights the many shared interests between the two like-minded partners in the face of the increasingly volatile global strategic environment, opening the potential for closer security cooperation – which still needs to be fulfilled. At the same time, NATO’s growing attention to global security dynamics opens opportunities for furthering the partnership between the Alliance and Japan going forward.

Part of the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy (CSDS) of the Brussels School of Governance, the Japan Chair stands out for its academic excellence, policy-relevance and networking credentials. Its location in Brussels gives it a direct access to the various intergovernmental institutions, transnational networks, and diplomatic and business communities of the EU, NATO and their member states. At the intersection between academia and think tanking, its research and expertise has rigor and credibility enabling a lasting impact, while at the same time a high degree of policy relevance.