Japan has recently signed a comprehensive free trade agreement with the EU, the Japan-EU Economic Partnership Agreement or JEEPA. JEEPA made some tentative steps towards addressing the digital transformation, yet refrained from the US promoted (and then abandoned) model of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) which enshrined protections for free data flows and against data localization requirements. How will Japan position itself in future vis-a-vis China, the EU and the US: as rule-taker, rule-mediator, or rule-creator?