Mexico
The Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation concluded in 1888 between Japan and Mexico was the nation's first "equal" treaty with any country; which overshadows Tokugawa Ieyasu's pre-Edo period initiatives which sought to establish official relations with the New Spain in Mexico.

In 1897, the 35 members of the so-called Enomoto Colonization Party settle in the Mexican state of Chiapas. This was the first organized emigration from Japan to Latin America.

President ?lvaro Obreg?n was awarded Japan's Order of the Chrysanthemum at a special ceremony in Mexico City. On November 27, 1924, Baron Shigetsuma Furuya, Special Ambassador from Japan to Mexico, conferred the honor on Obreg?n. It was reported that this had been the first time that the Order had been conferred outside the Imperial family.

In 1952, Mexico becomes the second country to ratify the San Francisco Peace Treaty, preceded only by the United Kingdom.[24]

Mexico and Japan on September 17, 2004, signed the "Agreement Between Japan and The United Mexican States For The Strengthening of The Economic Partnership." This was the among many historic steps led by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to strengthen global economic stability.

United States
The United States is Japan's closest ally, and Japan relies on the U.S. for its national security to a high degree. As two of the world's top economic powers, both countries also rely on close economic ties for their wealth, despite ongoing and occasionally acrimonious trade frictions.

Although its constitution and government policy preclude an offensive military role for Japan in international affairs, Japanese cooperation with the United States through the 1960 U.S.-Japan Security Treaty has been important to the peace and stability of East Asia. Currently, there are domestic discussions about possible reinterpretation of Article 9 of the Japanese constitution. All postwar Japanese governments have relied on a close relationship with the United States as the foundation of their foreign policy and have depended on the mutual security treaty for strategic protection.

The relationship probably hit a post-war nadir around the early 1990s, when Japan's "economic rise" was seen as a threat to American power. Japan was the primary financier of the Gulf War, yet received major criticism in some US circles for its refusal to commit actual military support. Following the collapse of the so-called Bubble economy and the 1990s boom in the US, the Japanese economy was perceived as less of a threat to US interests. Some observers still feel that Japan's willingness to deploy troops in support of current US operations in Iraq, as spear-headed by Koizumi and the conservative LDP, reflects a vow not to be excluded from the group of countries the US considers friends. This decision may reflect a realpolitik understanding of the threat Japan faces from a rapidly modernizing China, which from its continued and indeed growing pattern of anti-Japanese demonstrations reveals the belief that old historical scores remain unsettled.

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