Friendship Dolls were an international gift exchange between Japan and United States in 1927. Japanese friendship dolls (友情人形, yūjō ningyō) or Japanese ambassador dolls and the American blue-eyed dolls (青い目の人形, aoi me no ningyō) were sent between Japan and the United States. The dolls were meant to improve the deteriorated relationship between Japan and America. The worsening relationship resulted from the Immigration Act of Japan in 1924. This originated in anti-Japanese exclusion movements in California and other parts of the US.