Japan's International Relationships

Japan has close relationships with some countries you wouldn't expect. I was surprised to learn that Japan has close ties with Brazil, a country America has very few ties with....

Brazil's economy, the 10th largest in the world, has been influenced remarkably by foreign trade trends and policies. The world's second largest economy, Japan, has traditionally had major relations with Brazil. The largest Japanese ethnic group outside Japan is in Brazil, which is estimated to be more than 1.3 million in 1998.1 Half of Japan's foreign investment in Latin America is located in Brazil, and Brazil is the largest Latin American trading partner.

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Hamamatsu has a large Brazilian population, many of whom have been in Japan for generations.
Brazil's Trade Relations with Japan

And Bangladesh...

Japan is the second largest economy and has been a topmost donor globally. It lost its number one position as a donor only very recently. She has also been generous in its assistance to Bangladesh. In fact Japan has been the largest bilateral development partner for several years. Since her recognition of Bangladesh in 1972, Japan-Bangladesh relation grew from strength to strength. Starting from a very meagre amount of US$ 15 million in 1972-73, Japanese assistance to Bangladesh rose to US$ 356 million in 1994-95 and continues to be around this level to-day. As of 2000-01, Bangladesh has received a total amount of US$ 6049.79 million as foreign aid from Japan.

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Notice the similarity of their flags...
Ok, maybe that's a coincidence.
Japan/Bangladesh

And, although some people might think Japan and China are very similar, the truth is that Japan and China don't have much of a relationship, other than some business. They've historically had an affect on each other's cultures, but that affect doesn't seem to be very strong today.

Here are the numbers of foreigners who live in Japan...
http://www.kisc.meiji.ac.jp/~yamawaki/gmj/immigrants.htm

Brooker said:

And Bangladesh...

Japan is the second largest economy and has been a topmost donor globally. It lost its number one position as a donor only very recently. She has also been generous in its assistance to Bangladesh. In fact Japan has been the largest bilateral development partner for several years. Since her recognition of Bangladesh in 1972, Japan-Bangladesh relation grew from strength to strength. Starting from a very meagre amount of US$ 15 million in 1972-73, Japanese assistance to Bangladesh rose to US$ 356 million in 1994-95 and continues to be around this level to-day. As of 2000-01, Bangladesh has received a total amount of US$ 6049.79 million as foreign aid from Japan.

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Notice the similarity of their flags...

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Please do not forget the Palau flag...