The European Union's agriculture commissioner, Phil Hogan, says a successfully concluded free trade agreement this year between the 28-nation bloc and Japan will depend on the political will of the Japanese government.
Hogan called for an earlier conclusion of an EU-Japan free trade pact, while Tokyo is currently engaged in Diet procedures to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade accord signed with the United States and 10 other Pacific Rim countries.
"Both sides are aware of each other's position and we now need to move to the final compromise-finding phase," he said before his visit to Japan from Wednesday to attend a meeting of Group of Seven farm ministers this weekend in Niigata Prefecture.