This paper explores reasons for the (un)willingness of the European Union (EU) to cooperate with its external partners such as Japan in promoting regional integration and conflict resolution outside of Europe. One of the key arguments made in the paper is that the EU has demonstrated a strong preference for independently promoting regional integration and conflict management. Moreover, it has evidenced little inclination to cooperate with partner countries in attempting to address regional problems. Furthermore, until now, the EU’s concept of a ‘strategic partnership’ may not have functioned sufficiently well to enable it to play any constructive role in conjunction with its partners in East Asia. Such tendencies have been strengthened by the problems currently affecting the Japan–EU relationship such as the EU’s preference of not ‘taking sides’ with respect to complex regional problems, Japan’s ongoing ‘expectation deficit’ towards the EU and the EU’s ever-worsening perception of Japan.