Japan and the Visegrád Group

The Castle of Visegrád, today a symbol of Central European cooperation

While the cooperation between Japan and the European Union has flourished after the signing of the strategic and economic partherships, the exchange of ideas, views and goods has also deepened among Japan and some of the EU's regional groupings. The cooperation between the Visegrád Group (also called V4), linking Poland, Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia, and Japan, has expanded recently to become an important pillar of their respective foreign policy strategies.

 The V4+Japan partnership emerged in early 2000s, due to the V4 countries' imminent entrance to the Union, and their skilled, but relatively cheap, labour force. Over time, the cooperation has expanded and diversified, dealing with topics such as coordination prior to UN climate conferences, the fallout of Brexit, issues connected to Covid-19 pandemics and assistance to Western Balkans.

 Connectivity has recently emerged as an integral part of this framework. In 2021, at the 7th meeting of the V4+Japan Foreign Ministers in Poland, the Japanese FM Toshimitsu Motegi praised “major achievements” such as the V4+Japan seminars on cybersecurity and connectivity and joint research on science and technology.

 Although the cooperation is sometimes marred by the V4's dissonance on foreign policy preferences, there is a significant potential of further coordination in the foreseeable future. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has been at the top of the V4 political agenda, and there is a significant space for cooperation with Japan on Ukraine's post-war reconstruction.

Michal Kolmaš is an Associate Professor at the Metropolitan University Prague, and the editor-in-chief of the Czech Journal of International Relations (cjir.iir.cz). His research focuses on Japan's foreign policy, environmental politics and social norms.