What might have reversed the Anglo-Japanese alliance?

What might have led Japan to ally with the United States rather than Britain?

A strong British threat to Japan could have made the United States a useful counterweight and reversed the actual alignment.

This counterfactual reverses the roles of Britain and the United States in Japan's opening. Japan's alliance with Britain is explained as a way to counterbalance American pressure. If Britain had imposed that pressure instead, the United States could have become the alternative partner. The proposed alignment depends on which power Japan needed help resisting.