Japan–Philippines relations (Japanese: 日本とフィリピンの関係, romanized: Nihon to Firipin no kankei; Filipino: Ugnayang Hapon at Pilipinas) span a period from before the 16th century to the present.

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.

[16] In 1888, Filipino national hero Jose Rizal arrived in Japan and had a relationship with Seiko Usui (Osei-san), a daughter of a samurai.

[22][23] 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.

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.

[26] 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.

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.

[28] 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.

[29] 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 Philippine population decreased continuously for the next 5 years due to the spread of diseases and the lack of basic needs, far from Filipino lifestyle prior to the war where the country used to be the second richest in Asia, ironically, next only to Japan.

One of the advocates of the Containment Policy, George F. Kennan, suggested the immediate rehabilitation of Japan's industrial and military capacity in order to best assist the US in countering communism in Asia.

This ran counter to the initial position of the United States in regards to reparations, but after Mao Zedong took control of China and the onset of the Korean War, Japan was directly exposed to the threat.

[38] The United States ended the Advance Reparations Transfer Program, to which the Philippines, through Romulo and Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Felino Neri, objected.

Romulo and Neri put forth the Philippine position that they recognize the threat of Communism, as the country itself faces an insurgency of their own, and that they also welcome the Peace Treaty to ensure Japan can actively participate in negotiations.

[39] When the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty was signed, Romulo lamented that it "fails to provide for reparations in the form and manner [they] desire."

Furthermore, he expressed optimism as Japanese Premier Shigeru Yoshida "solemnly pledged to [them] that Japan will do all that is humanly possible to repair the damage it has done to the Philippines.

"[40] In 1954, the Japanese government started to beguile or invite Filipinos to take-up their studies in their country, through the formation of scholarships that was managed by the Ministry of Education of Japan.

Theoretically speaking, the students who would be availing of this invitation should be amongst the ones who would help the Philippines to recover or another angle, contribute to the economic development of the country.

"[42] In October 1967, Prime Minister Eisaku Satō visited the Philippines as part of his goodwill tour through Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

He ratified the Treaty of Amity, Commerce and Navigation ten days prior to a visit of Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka.

[49] When the Marcoses were exiled to Hawaii in the United States in February 1986 after the People Power Revolution,[50] the American authorities confiscated papers that they brought with them.

The confiscated documents revealed that since the 1970s, Marcos and his associates received commissions of 10 to 15 percent of Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund loans from about fifty Japanese contractors.

[citation needed] This revelation became known as the Marukosu giwaku (マルコス疑惑), or "Marcos scandals",[44] and had to be addressed by the administrations of succeeding presidents Corazon Aquino and Fidel V. Ramos.

[50] Japan remained a major source of development funds, trade, investment, and tourism in the 1980s, and there have been few foreign policy disputes between the two nations.

Japan also contributed the largest amount of international aid to the Philippines after the latter suffered from the 1990 Luzon earthquake and 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption.

Japan ended its support for the skeleton repatriation program afterwards; however, the remains of the indigenous Filipinos were never sent back to the ancestral communities they were stolen from.

The agreement provides a framework for the supply of defense equipment and technology and will allow the two countries to carry out joint research and development projects.

[66] In early May 2016, plans to spearhead a Japan-Philippine Mutual Defense Treaty were announced as the top foreign policy priority of Mar Roxas if he were to win the presidency.

[citation needed] In 2017, civilian groups in the Philippines and other countries joined forces to push for the inscription of Voices of the ”Comfort Women” in the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme.