United States–Japan Treaty of Amity and Commerce

From Maritime Access to Trade

The United States and the Tokugawa shogunate signed the Treaty of Amity and Commerce at Edo on July 29, 1858. Townsend Harris, the American consul general, negotiated the agreement with commissioners of the shogunate. The earlier Treaty of Kanagawa had provided for supplies, shipwreck relief, and a consular presence. The new agreement extended that opening into a system of commercial ports and resident diplomatic missions. [4] [2]

Its first article authorized an American diplomatic representative at Edo and a Japanese representative at Washington. Harris became minister resident and presented his credentials in 1859. Japanese envoys traveled to the United States to exchange ratifications in Washington in 1860, making the treaty a direct connection between the shogunate and the American capital. [1] [2]

The Treaty-Port System

The treaty scheduled additional ports for American residence and trade, including Kanagawa and Nagasaki, and permitted merchants to lease land and erect homes and warehouses. Americans could trade directly with Japanese subjects. Its attached regulations fixed customs duties, while Article VI placed Americans accused of offenses against Japanese under American consular jurisdiction. These arrangements constrained Japan’s control over tariffs and the prosecution of foreigners within its territory. [1]

The agreement also restricted opium imports and protected Americans’ religious practice. It permitted revision after 1872, subject to notice, but the removal of extraterritorial jurisdiction took much longer. Japan’s treaty revision campaign became a central diplomatic undertaking of the Meiji period. A replacement commercial treaty signed in 1894 provided for the termination of American consular jurisdiction when it entered into operation in 1899. [1] [3]

Signing without Imperial Approval

The negotiations also exposed disagreement within Japan over the shogunate’s authority. Senior officials sought imperial approval for the treaty but did not obtain it. Ii Naosuke, newly appointed to the senior office of tairō, authorized signature without that approval. Similar agreements with Britain, France, Russia, and the Netherlands followed, extending the diplomatic consequences beyond the American relationship. [4]

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