The National Institute of Historical Studies of the Revolutions of Mexico (INEHRM) commemorated on November 30, 2023 the 135th anniversary of the historical friendship between Mexico and Japan.
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By: Berenice Santos, International Business Intern.
For both nations, the treaty represented a turning point in foreign relations since both countries had suffered, to different degrees, from foreign interventionism in their lives as emerging nations. For Mexico, it represented the renewal of ties with the Asian continent. For Japan, it represented the first treaty on equal terms that respected its national jurisdiction. With the signing of the treaty, the country of the rising sun was able to renegotiate the unequal treaties it had with other Western nations.
Although this event is considered the formal beginning of diplomatic relations between the two countries, the truth is that the historical friendship that unites Japan and Mexico goes beyond the 19th century and has lasted until the present day.
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Two of the episodes with the greatest echo in the history of contact between the two countries are, on the one hand, the shipwreck of the Galleon San Francisco in 1609, whose crew members received help from the people of Iwawada (today Onjuku), as well as from the Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu to return to New Spain.
On the other hand, the diplomatic trip of Hasekura Tsunenaga, who passed through New Spain on his way to Spain and Rome, whose delegation arrived in Acapulco in 1614.
Although both episodes took place before Mexico emerged as an independent nation, fraternal ties had already been established. After the closing of the Japanese borders, relations between the two nations slowed down. However, this did not mean the end of commercial and cultural exchanges, since these prevailed indirectly through the Manila Galleon.
The first contacts between Mexico and Japan date back to the period after the Spanish invasion, in the 17th century, but it was in the last quarter of the 19th century when they began to be significant, as a result of the modernization processes undertaken in both countries.
Since the mid-19th century, political, economic and social transformations coincided in both nations. On the one hand, Japan was able to put an end to its policy of international isolation, while Mexico, after a period of instability, achieved its second independence and was ready to rethink its international relations.
One of the first exchanges took place in 1874, when a group of Mexican scientists was commissioned by then President Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada to travel to Japan as part of an astronomical mission. Among the members were Francisco Bulnes and Francisco Díaz Covarrubias, the latter being at that time the Senior Official of the Ministry of Development.
In 1883, under the presidency of Porfirio Díaz, Matías Romero, then Minister Plenipotentiary at the Mexican Embassy in Washington, referred to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Ignacio Mariscal, our country's interest in signing a commercial treaty between Mexico and Japan.
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The treaty of friendship, commerce and navigation between Mexico and Japan was signed on November 30, 1888, five years after the beginning of the negotiations. The agreement became a memorable legal precedent for Japan, as it allowed it to rethink its international relations on the basis of the principles of legal equality of States; on the other hand, the agreement opened the door to Japanese migrations to Mexico.
The Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs points out in the document History of Bilateral Relations: “the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation of 1888 was the common basis for developing economic, cultural, migratory and political relations between both countries. It was later replaced by another treaty signed in 1924 that updated some of its points. Many other treaties on different subjects were signed by both countries during the 20th century, when bilateral ties expanded significantly”.
Likewise, the official Japanese migration began in 1897, organized by Takeaki Enomoto. The 35 migrants settled in Escuintla, Chiapas, and formed the “Enomoto” colony. However, recent research indicates that there was Japanese migration since the 17th century, such was the case of Luis Encío and Juan de Páez, two Japanese who settled in the city of Guadalajara.
Additionally, the fascination that the Japanese country had over Mexicans is not only reflected in the 1990s when the first anime programs arrived on national television. One of the most outstanding examples was the Mexican poet José Juan Tablada who wrote articles about Japanese culture and art published in the Revista Moderna, which in 1919 were published under the title “En el país del sol” (In the country of the sun).
Later, Tablada would be the introducer of Haiku in Mexican literature, and well into the twentieth century, both Octavio Paz and Alfonso Reyes would take up the fascination for Haiku bequeathing several poems in Spanish with the structure of Japanese poetry.
All these examples would be enough to demonstrate that bilateral relations between the two nations are long-lived.
Imagen: Asia Stage
Bilateral relations with Japan were interrupted during World War II and were resumed until 1952, when both governments announced their intention to resume diplomatic and consular relations and to upgrade their representations in Tokyo and Mexico City to embassy status.
Octavio Paz, then second secretary of the Mexican Foreign Service, then attached to the Mexican Embassy in India, was commissioned to reopen the Mexican Embassy in Japan.
The reestablishment of diplomatic relations in 1952 allowed a new wave of immigrants from Japan. Not only did children of Mexican-born immigrants who had been trapped in Japan during the war return, but so did new immigrants who were invited by family or friends to seek a better future in the face of the near-total destruction of their country.
The Cultural Exchange Agreement between Mexico and Japan, signed in 1954, allowed the inauguration of the great exhibition “The Arts of Mexico” at the Tokyo National Museum, as well as the tour of the trio Los Panchos that made Mexican romantic music known to the Japanese people, who were immediately captivated. Due to their success, they recorded one of the most popular Japanese songs, Sakura sakura, with the style and guitars of this Mexican trio.
The commemoration of 135 years of historical Mexican-Japanese friendship revalorizes the greater dynamism of mutual benefit, not only commercial and financial, but also cultural, academic, educational and historical research between the two countries.
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