League of the Three Emperors

The League of the Three Emperors (Portuguese: Liga dos Três Imperadores; Spanish: Liga de los Tres Emperadores; Japanese: Sankō dōmei) is a political alliance inaugurated in 2003 between the countries of Japan, Mexico, and Brazil, the world's currently remaining monarchies whose rulers are either styled as emperors or empresses.

Inaugurated in 2003, the alliance is directly named after its predecessor which took place approximately 130 years ago between the empires of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. However, unlike the original version, the newer version is neither an offensive or defensive alliance but mostly an informal economic alliance between the three countries of Japan, Brazil, and Mexico who, aside from their shared feature of having an emperor on the throne, are all members of the G20 and are considered to be regional powers in their own right. Of the three, Japan's monarchy is the oldest, having reigned uninterrupted since the 6th century when Emperor Kinmei, the first verified Japanese monarch, took the throne. Meanwhile, Mexico's monarchy was established in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence from Spain under Carlos I, a son of Spain's King Charles IV, while Brazil's monarchy was first established in 1822 following the independence of Brazil under Pedro I but was subsequently abolished in 1889 before later being restored by a popular referendum in 1993 under Luiz I. Moreover, whereas both the Brazilian and Mexican monarchies are Roman Catholic, Japan's monarchy has been traditionally Buddhist.

At the time of its inauguration, the three emperors representing Brazil, Mexico, and Japan respectively were Emperors Luiz, Carlos IV, and Takahito. Since then, all three monarchs are deceased. In 2012, the alliance expanded to include an additional member Iran whose monarchy, currently led by Shah Reza Shah II, had been restored in the aftermath of the Green Revolution that abolished the country's Islamic republican system. In that same year, Japan also saw the accession of Empress Akiko, the first female monarch of Japan in three centuries.