Kiyonari Yoshida

Kiyonari Yoshida was born in Kagoshima in 1845 and studied in Britain and the United States. After briefly joining Thomas Lake Harris’s religious community with other Satsuma students, he left for further study at Rutgers and Wesleyan, including politics, economics, banking, and insurance. He returned to Japan in 1870 and entered the Finance Ministry. Another American assignment preceded his appointment as minister in Washington in 1874. ^{1, 2}

On July 25, 1878, Yoshida and Secretary of State William M. Evarts signed a convention revising the commercial treaties. It recognized Japan’s authority to set customs tariffs and regulate its coasting trade, while offering additional access for American commerce. Ratifications were exchanged in Washington in April 1879. The apparent breakthrough had a decisive condition: Article X postponed operation until Japan secured comparable revisions with all its other treaty partners. Signing the convention therefore did not itself restore Japan’s tariff freedom. ^{3, 4, 5}

After returning in 1882, Yoshida became a senior Foreign Ministry official and later vice-minister of agriculture and commerce. He also sat in the Genroin and joined the Privy Council in 1888. He died in 1891. His correspondence survives in collections at Kyoto University and the National Diet Library. ²