Japan–Philippines relations (; ) span a period from before the 16th century to the present. Results of 2013 Pew Research Center pollAsia/Pacific views of Japan by country(sorted by fav − unfav)Country polled Positive Negative Neutral Pos − Neg 6-86 1-55 4244 460 662 967 1474 Results of 2011 BBC World Service pollViews of Japan's influence by country(sorted by pos − neg)Country polled Positive Negative Neutral Pos − Neg 11 -53 42 -10 51 19 42 24 48 26 16 26 44 30 16 32 17 33 34 34 14 34 24 38 34 38 19 41 15 43 12 48 16 48 18 50 21 51 17 51 13 51 20 52 26 54 28 58 4 72 8 78
History
Early history
Relations between Japan and the pre-Hispanic polities in the Philippines date back to at least the pre-colonial period of Filipino history or the Muromachi period of Japanese history. Austronesian speakers presumably from the Philippines and Taiwan, known as the Hayato and Kumaso, were immigrants to Japan and even served in the Imperial Court.Kakubayashi, Fumio. 隼人 : オーストロネシア系の古代日本部族' Hayato : An Austronesian speaking tribe in southern Japan.'. The bulletin of the Institute for Japanese Culture, Kyoto Sangyo University, 3, pp.15-31 ISSN 1341-7207 These Austronesians have possible Native American ancestry as Native Americans and Austronesians interacted with each other in the spread of sweet potato to the Pacific even before the Spanish invasion. The sweet potato possibly even reached Japan before the Spanish colonization, through the Austronesian-Amerindian connection.
Mishima ware imported from Luzon were also traded in Japan. These were especially sourced from the pre-Hispanic polities of Tondo, Manila, and Pangasinan in Luzon through trade with Japan. Likewise, the natives of the Philippines helped shelter Japanese merchants and traders in northern Luzon in 1440, while 20 Japanese traders were also recorded in Manila by 1517. In 1580, while Filipino natives were helping Japanese sailors, a Japanese pirate named Tayfusa colonized parts of Cagayan in northern Luzon, establishing his own kingdom. In 1582, the Spanish arrived in Cagayan to colonize it for themselves. This led to the 1582 Cagayan battles, which resulted to the expulsion of Tayfusa's forces.General Archive of the Indies, Philippines, file 6, bunch 2, number 59. Letter from Gonzalo Ronquillo, Governor of the Philippines to the Viceroy of Mexico, 1 June 1582
Around 1600, the area of Dilao, a district of Manila, was a Nihonmachi of around 3,000 Japanese or Filipinos with Japanese descent. The term probably originated from the Tagalog term 'dilaw', meaning 'yellow', which describes their general physiognomy. The Japanese had established quite early an enclave at Dilao where they numbered between 300 and 400 in 1593. In 1603, during the Sangley rebellion, they numbered 1,500, and 3,000 in 1606. In the 16th and 17th centuries, thousands of Japanese people traders also migrated to the Philippines and assimilated into the local population. pp. 52–3
In 1593, Spanish authorities in Manila authorized the dispatch of Franciscan missionaries to Japan. The Franciscan friar Luis Sotelo was involved in the support of the Dilao enclave between 1600 and 1608.
In the first half of the 17th century, intense official trade took place between the two countries, through the Red seal ships system. Thirty official "Red seal ship" passports were issued between Japan and the Philippines between 1604 and 1616.* Boxer, C.R., The Christian Century in Japan, 2001 Carcanet, Manchester, p.264
The Japanese led an abortive rebellion in Dilao against the Spanish Empire in 1606–1607, but their numbers rose again until the interdiction of Christianity by Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1614, when 300 Japanese Christian refugees under Takayama Ukon settled in the Philippines. On 8 November 1614, together with 300 Japanese Christians Takayama Ukon left his home country from Nagasaki. He arrived at Manila on 21 December and was greeted warmly by the Spanish Jesuits and the local Filipinos there. The Spanish Philippines offered its assistance in overthrowing the Japanese government by invasion to protect Japanese Catholics. Justo declined to participate and died of illness just 40 days afterward. These 17th-century immigrants are at the origin of some of today's 200,000-strong Japanese population in the Philippines.
More rebellions such as one known as the Tondo conspiracy by Filipinos against Spain, had Japanese merchants and Christians involved, but the conspiracy was disbanded. Toyotomi Hideyoshi threatened the Spanish to leave or face full scale Japanese invasion, however, this was near his decline and death. The Tokugawa Shogunate rose in power right after.
In the 17th century (1633 & 1635), Japan established an isolationist (sakoku) policy, and contacts between the two nations were severed until after the opening of Japan in 1854. In the 16th and 17th centuries, thousands of Japanese traders also migrated to the Philippines and assimilated into the local population. In 1888, Filipino national hero Jose Rizal arrived in Japan and had a relationship with Seiko Usui (Osei-san), a daughter of a samurai.
In 2009, Japanese and Filipino archaeologists from the Sumitomo Foundation-funded Boljoon Archaeological Project conducted by the University of San Carlos with the National Museum of the Philippines, discovered ancient Japanese pottery that has been believed to have been in existence since the early 1700s. The ancient Japanese pottery that was discovered there, has proven that there was activity of trading activity between Japan and Cebu Island Philippines going back to the 16th century.
Philippines and the Empire of Japan
In 1875, Emperor Meiji sent an economic mission to resume normal trade between the Empire of Japan and the Philippines. Then, thirteen years after, he ordered to establish a Japanese consulate that would be based in Manila, and Umekichi Yatabe, was the first Japanese consul.
According to the Spanish diplomat F.E. Reynoso, in 1894 the Japanese offered to buy the Philippines from Spain for 40 million pounds sterling. However, according to Reynoso this offer was not accepted. According to the scholar C.E. Russell, in 1896 Spain was rumoured to have offered to sell the islands to Japan for $3,000,000 gold dollars, but this offer was rejected.
During the 1896 revolution against Spanish colonial rule, some Filipino insurgents (especially the Katipunan) sought assistance from the Japanese government. The Katipunan sought to send a delegate to the Emperor of Japan to solicit funds and military arms in May 1896. The beginning of the uprising coincided with a visit to Manila by the Japanese warship Kongō, and the leadership approached the captain of the ship in an attempt to buy arms from Japan, but no deal was made. Nevertheless, despite no official support from the Japanese government, there were still individual Japanese citizens who joined in the Philippine Revolution against Spain and the Philippine-American War.
The Meiji government of Japan was unwilling and unable to provide any official support. However, Japanese supporters of Philippine independence in the Pan-Asian movement raised funds and sent weapons on the privately charted Nunobiki Maru, which sank before reaching its destination. However, the Japanese government officially acquiesced to American colonial rule over the Philippines, as ratified by the Taft–Katsura Agreement of 1905. During the American period, Japanese economic ties to the Philippines expanded tremendously and by 1929 Japan was the largest trading partner to the Philippines after the United States. Economic investment was accompanied by large-scale immigration of Japanese to the Philippines, mainly merchants, gardeners and prostitutes ('karayuki-san'). Davao that time had over 20,000 ethnic Japanese residents. In Baguio, Japanese workers represented about 22% of the workforce that constructed Benguet Road (later renamed Kennon Road), so that Baguio later had a significant Japanese population. By 1935, it was estimated that Japanese immigrants dominated 35% of Philippine retail trade. Investments included extensive agricultural holdings and natural resource development. By 1940, some 40% of Philippine exports to Japan were iron, copper, manganese and chrome.Lydia N. Yu-Jose, Japan Views the Philippines, 1900-1944 (1999)
When it comes to the Philippine importation of electrical machineries and appliances, Japan was tied with China for the 2nd-largest supplier of such products, both trailing behind the United States.
As the Commonwealth period came, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs along with their representatives in the Philippines assessed that since the main purpose of the Commonwealth inaugurated was to establish a transition period towards their independence from the Americans, Japan thought that the majority of the Filipinos would already not turn to them, asking for assistance or aid to attain independence. Even more, the scent of conspicuousness is at its peak due to their economic presence in the country would be detrimental in establishing sincerity and friendship with the Filipinos since they are becoming more wary.
During World War II, immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese forces invaded and quickly overcame resistance by the United States and Philippine Commonwealth military. Strategically, Japan needed the Philippines to prevent its use by Allied forces as a forward base of operations against the Japanese home islands, and against its plans for the further conquest of Southeast Asia. In 1943, a puppet government, the Second Philippine Republic, was established, but gained little popular support, primarily due to the Imperial Japanese Army's brutal conduct towards the Philippine civilian population. During the course of the Japanese occupation, and subsequent battles during the American and Filipino re-invasion, an estimated one million Filipinos died, giving rise to lingering anti-Japanese sentiment.Sven Matthiessen, Japanese Pan-Asianism and the Philippines from the Late Nineteenth Century to the End of World War II: Going to the Philippines Is Like Coming Home? (Brill, 2015). More than a thousand Filipino "comfort women", composed of mothers, girls, and gay men, were forcibly taken by Japan to serve at their sex slave camps during the occupation.
The Japanese also sent "doctors" and "surgeons" to the Philippines, who performed human experimentation on native Filipinos. Some of these experiments included amputations, dissections, and suturing blood vessels of live humans. Surgeons gruesomely performed vivisections on Filipinos. The Japanese were also known to have killed Filipino infants as an act of entertainment and stress-reliever. Cannibalism was also conducted by the Japanese on the remains of murdered civilian Filipinos during and after the occupation.