This is an open access book. Relations between Brazil and Japan progressed dynamically in the 1960s and 1970s, centering on the substantial complementarity between Japan’s needing primary goods to sustain high economic growth and Brazil’s seeking non-hegemonic investment to invigorate its resource potential. Now that this complementarity has lost significance, the two countries are restructuring their relations to protect shared values of democracy, freedom, the rule of law, and the need for maintaining good relations with both China and the United States. Analyzed here is the development of this renewed bilateral relationship in multiple directions: productivity, global environment and health, migration, and triangular cooperation in third countries’ development. Facing the prospect of a declining population, Japan may become more open to international migration, but the experience with Japanese-descent Brazilian workers since the amendment of the migration control law in 1990 presents many lessons and challenges for the symbiosis of multicultural groups. Brazil, for its part, needs to address social inequality. To this end, it is fundamental to improve the quality of work. This book argues that Brazil and Japan can benefit from cooperation in managing those country-specific issues. It also discusses ways that Brazil and Japan can profit from coordinating action on global problems such as greenhouse gas reduction, mitigation of tropical diseases, healthy community building, and high-quality infrastructure for poverty reduction.

Japan has long had a presence in Latin America - ever since small numbers of Japanese migrated at the beginning of the century to work as farm laborers. Growing economic and political power has made Japan more visible than ever in the region, its activities and influence competing directly with U.S. holdings and interests. Providing a brief historical overview and examining issues that will shape future economic arrangements in the region, Japan, the United States, and Latin America is the most detailed analysis to date of growing Japanese economic influence outside Asia. In their introduction, the editors explore various possibilities for the future of the region: the United States maintaining its dominant position, Japan displacing the United States, and the two countries sharing economic power and political influence. Concluding that none of these possibilities is adequate, they propose instead a trilateral model in which the Latin American countries begin to play a central role in shaping the region's economic development, working as equal partners with Japan and the United States for mutual benefit. The other contributors to the volume provide the differing perspectives of the countries under consideration. Drawing on sources unfamiliar to most Western scholars, three Japanese authors discuss Japan's perspective on Latin America's role in the global political economy, the evolution of Japanese cultural ties and economic interests in the area, and the growth of Latin American studies in Japan. Five Latin American scholars then examine the impact of Japanese economic activities in Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Chile, and Panama. They also explore strategies these countries might use togain maximum advantage from relations with both the United States and Japan.