Harris Treaty
- Signed: 1858/6/19
- Japanese: 日米修好通商条約 (Nichibei shuukou tsuushou jouyaku)
The Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the United States and Japan, also known as the Harris Treaty after US Consul Townsend Harris, was the first formal treaty signed between Japan and any of the Western powers, after the Convention of Kanagawa signed with Commodore Matthew Perry in 1854. Signed on 1858/6/19 by Harris and representatives of the Tokugawa shogunate aboard the USS Powhatan anchored in Edo Bay, the treaty provided for the opening of three ports (Hakodate, Yokohama, and Nagasaki) to American trading ships beginning 1859/6, guaranteed extraterritoriality for Americans in Japan, and obligated Japanese authorities to provide supplies and aid to American ships or castaways anywhere they should arrive in Japan.
Ships could only call at ports other than the treaty ports if they were in need of provisions or assistance, were forbidden from engaging in trade, and were obliged to leave as soon as possible. If an American ship were to refuse to leave, the local samurai authorities were to report to Nagasaki the names and nationalities of ship and captain; the Nagasaki bugyô could then speak with that nation's consul, to request that the ship leave.
The Treaty was followed shortly afterwards by similar treaties with the Netherlands, Russia, the United Kingdom, and France, granting the same privileges to each through the notion of most-favored nation status.
References
- Robert Hellyer, Defining Engagement, Harvard University Press (2009), 176.
