Relationship dossier
Germany
Japan
Relationship assessment
Germany and Japan maintain a substantially cooperative partnership, including regular consultations and security cooperation.
Germany toward Japan
+45Germany has pursued regular intergovernmental consultations with Japan and held foreign and defence ministerial talks. The two governments concluded an agreement on protecting classified information and have coordinated on international security issues, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Japan toward Germany
+45Japan has pursued regular intergovernmental consultations with Germany and held foreign and defence ministerial talks. The two governments concluded an agreement on protecting classified information and have coordinated on international security issues, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Overall relationship
+45The relationship is underpinned by recurring high-level consultations and concrete diplomatic and security cooperation, including arrangements for handling classified information. Coordination on international security issues adds to this cooperative structure; the extent of its practical defence dimension is less clear.
How to read these scores
Scores are rough judgments, not objective measurements or current verification. Directional scores describe government policy and conduct, not public opinion. The overall score is an independent estimate, never an average.
- −100
- Extreme sustained hostility
- −50
- Substantially adversarial
- 0
- Mixed or neutral, supported by knowledge
- +50
- Substantially cooperative
- +100
- Exceptionally close sustained partnership
“Not assessed” means there is no recorded score. Pair existence makes no claim about diplomatic recognition or established relations.
Relationship context
Overview
Germany and Japan have developed practical cooperation in diplomacy, security and economic affairs. Their governments established regular intergovernmental consultations, held foreign and defence ministerial talks, and concluded an agreement protecting classified information. Both have also coordinated on major international issues, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The relationship is substantially cooperative, though the scope and implementation of some security cooperation are unclear.
Key developments
Germany and Japan concluded an agreement on the protection of classified information.
The governments held their first intergovernmental consultations, establishing a regular high-level format.
Major uncertainties
- The scope and implementation of bilateral defence cooperation are unclear.
- The durability and practical effects of recent intergovernmental consultations are uncertain.