EU Commissioner Thierry Breton met with the Japanese government on Monday, with artificial intelligence "very high" on his agenda.

 "I will engage with the Japanese government ... on how we can organise our digital space, including AI based on our shared value," Breton said.

Breton said there will be an EU-Japan Digital Partnership council to discuss areas including quantum and high-performance computing. The EU held a similar council with South Korea, in which the two sides agreed to cooperate on technologies such as AI and cybersecurity.

Partnerships with key Asian countries with promising technology sectors come as the EU looks to "de-risk" from China, This is slightly different from the US, which wants to decouple its economy from Beijing completely. Part of that EU strategy involves deepening the relationship with allied countries around technology.

Breton said the bloc and Japan will cooperate in the area of semiconductors. Japan is a critical country in the semiconductor supply chain, and Tokyo has been looking to strengthen its domestic industry. Last week, a fund backed by the Japanese government proposed to buy domestic chipmaking firm JSR for around 903.9 billion yen ($6.3 billion).

The EU has also been looking to strengthen its own semiconductor industry across the bloc.