In forex trading the pair quotes are fixed as they are (EUR/USD, USD/JPY) and you will never hear the referred to by any real participant or market watcher the other way around. It's just the accepted nomenclature.
As to why the EUR is listed first, that was a decision made by the international banking community when the Euro was launched. If you look through the pairs listing you will see that there is a ranking structure which goes like this for the majors:
1) EUR
2) GBP
3) AUD
4) USD
5) CHF
6) CAD
7) JPY
The currency ranked higher will always be the base in the pair, which is why GBP, for example, is always the base against all other currencies except the EUR, and why JPY is always the quote currency.
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