Another Asian giant is making rounds in Latin America for the next nine days. Japan's prime minister arrived in Mexico on Friday to begin discussing trade agreements, hoping to strengthen the island nation's relationship in Latin America.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrived in Mexico, according to the Mexican newspaper El Universal, and met with President Enrique Peña Nieto and his wife Angelica Rivera at the Presidential Palace. Accompanying the Japanese prime minister was his wife Akie Abe.

The men spoke to the media in the Courtyard of the Presidential Palace and signed various "cooperation agreements in economic, environmental, oil and trade areas," reports El Universal.

According to the Japan Times, Abe is in Latin America to bolster economic relations between Japan and the region. During his visit, which will end on Aug. 4, Abe will visit Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, Colombia, Chile and Brazil. Aside from strengthening trade agreements between individual nations and Japan, Abe will continue to advocate the Trans-Pacific Partnership with Mexico and Chile and will discuss reforming the U.N. Security Council with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.

Among the deals signed between Mexico and Japan are one between Pemex, Mexico's state-owned oil company, and Japan's development bank, as well as another between Pemex and the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation, according to Agence France-Presse.

Japan has been searching for new energy sources ever since the Fukushima nuclear reactor disaster in 2011, reports the AFP. Gas from the United States' East Coast is too expensive for it has to cross the Panama Canal, according to Kenko Sone, a government official traveling with Abe.

With over 800 Japanese companies investing in Mexico, the North American nation has become Japan's fourth largest trade partner, according to AFP, "with a total trade of $19.3 billion last year."

Aside from signing the abovementioned trade agreements, Mexico and Japan signed 14 cooperation agreements in various other sectors, according to the EFE News Agency; however, both leaders agreed to continue working towards a speedy finalization of the Trans-Pacific Partnership accords.

If it succeeds, the TPP would link the economies of Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam, reports EFE. Peña Nieto's administration is confident the accord will be signed by the year's end.