In 1942, foreign ministers met in Río de Janeiro to take part in a debate over the collective and unanimous breaking of relations with Axis powers. While most American nations supported this stance, Chile and Argentina stood alone in opposing the severing diplomatic relations with the Axis. This paper examines the context of the meet-ing. By relying on Japanese press coverage, it assesses the Japanese foreign service’s efforts to maintain the neutrality of Chile and Argentina. This provides an interesting perspective of the global impact of the Chilean-Argentine position, the influence displayed by Japan in this process, and how the hegemonic position of the U.S. was instrumen-talised in Asia.