With the United Kingdom having formally left the European Union on January 31, British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab is traveling to the Asia-Pacific region this week with stops in Australia, Japan, Singapore, and Malaysia. The purpose of Raab's trip is to prepare the road for bilateral British free trade deals in a post-Brexit world, ideally finalizing these trade deals by January 2021, when Britain's transition period ends.

Japan already has an economic partnership agreement (EPA) with the EU, which went into force last February. This deal will cover British-Japanese trade throughout the duration of the transition period, but the U.K. will need to strike its own bargain with Japan to replace it. Both the Japanese and British governments have expressed hopes that their bilateral trade deal will be more ambitious than the existing Japan-EU EPA. For the U.K., an aggressive trade deal with Japan is desirable as potential leverage to strengthen its position vis-à-vis the EU. But British desire for a comprehensive deal - and the very real deadline Brexit imposed - provides opportunities for Japan as well.