As MND puts local food and drink into a sharper focus in its new sections , we’re kicking off a series to give readers and eaters a peek into the many cultures that make Mexico City’s cuisine what it is today. Many people think of Mexico as ethnically monolithic, a mestizo nation made up of the descendants of Spaniards and Indigenous peoples. In fact, many groups of immigrants have also come to the country and left their indelible mark on the local food scene.
One of these groups is the Japanese. In 1888, Mexico and Japan signed the Treaty of Amity, Commerce and Navigation, which not only established diplomatic relations between the two countries but was also Japan’s first trading agreement that put it on equal footing with another nation. But even then, there were already hundreds of years of history linking the two countries: Japanese sailors had long been part of the Manila Galleon, the trans-Pacific trade route that connected the Philippines and Mexico during the Spanish colonial period.
These sailors often joined up on ships that were making the rounds and trading with Spanish sailors in the Philippines. The first official Japanese immigration to Mexico came in the form of the Enomoto Colonization Party, which settled in Chiapas with plans to start a coffee-growing business. The project failed, but it was the start of a small trend of permanent Japanese immigration to Mexico during the 19th and 20th centuries.
By 1910, 10,000 Japanese are believed to have settled i.
