On 25 January 2019, the Official Journal  published a notice stating that the European Union and Japan have notified each other of the completion of the procedures necessary for the provisional application of the Strategic Partnership Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and Japan, of the other part, on 21 December 2018. Consequently, Japan and the Union may provisionally apply mutually determined provisions of the Agreement in accordance with (Article 47(2)) as from 1 February 2019.

By virtue of Article 4 of Council Decision (EU) 2018/1197 of 26 June 2018 on the signing, on behalf of the European Union, and provisional application of the Strategic Partnership Agreement, the following parts of the Agreement shall be applied provisionally between the Union and Japan:

(a) Articles 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 25, 28, 40 and 41;

(b) Article 13, Article 15 (with the exception of point (b) of paragraph 2), Articles 17, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31 and 37, Article 38(1) and Article 39 to the extent that they cover matters for which the Union has already exercised its competence internally;

(c) Articles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5(1) to the extent that they cover matters falling within the Union’s competence to define and implement a common foreign and security policy;

(d) Article 42 (with the exception of point (c) of paragraph 2), Articles 43-47, Article 48(3) and Articles 49, 50 and 51 to the extent that these provisions are limited to the purpose of ensuring the provisional application of the Agreement.