Historical Dictionary of United States-Japan ... - Bakumatsu Films

U.S.–JAPAN TREATY OF COMMERCE AND NAVIGATION • 255
CIAL QUOTA SYSTEM; JAPAN–AMERICAN TRADE ARBITRA-
TION AGREEMENT; JAPAN–U.S. COTTON PRODUCTS TRADE
AGREEMENT; JAPAN–U.S. FRIENDSHIP COMMERCE NAVIGA-
TION TREATY; JAPAN–U.S. SEMICONDUCTOR AGREEMENT;
JAPAN–U.S. SURPLUS AGRICULTURAL COMMODITIES AGREE-
MENT; JAPAN–U.S. TEXTILE AGREEMENT; JOINT STATEMENT
ON THE JAPAN–UNITED STATES FRAMEWORK FOR A NEW
ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP; JOINT U.S.–JAPAN COMMITTEE ON
TRADE AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS; MAEKAWA REPORTS; MOR-
RISON INCIDENT; ORDERLY MARKETING AGREEMENT;
STRUCTURAL IMPEDIMENTS INITIATIVE (SII); SUPER 301 PRO-
VISIONS OF THE OMNIBUS TRADE AND COMPETITIVE ACT OF
1988; U.S.–JAPAN YEN DOLLAR COMMITTEE; VOLUNTARY EX-
PORT RESTRAINT.
U.S.–JAPAN TREATY OF AMITY AND COMMERCE. Sometimes
called the “Harris Treaty,” this treaty negotiated by Townsend
Harris and Naosuke Ii was the first of the Ansei Treaties between
Japan and Western countries in 1858. Trading rights, opening of
ports to trade and Western residents, and extraterritoriality provisions
of the U.S–Japan Treaty of Amity and Commerce and the other
Ansei Treaties caused significant tensions between the Tokugawa
shogunate in Edo, represented by Naosuke Ii, and the imperial
house in Kyoto, which refused to ratify the treaties. See also MEIJI
RESTORATION; REVERE THE EMPEROR, EXPEL THE BAR-
BARIAN.
U.S.–JAPAN TREATY OF COMMERCE AND NAVIGATION.
Ever since Commodore Matthew Perry in the 1850s negotiated the
Ansei Treaties with Japan—treaties whose inequality was replicated
by the agreements Japan subsequently reached with all the major
powers—Tokyo had sought to revise those “unequal treaties.” In
particular, it sought the right to control its own tariffs and ports. By
February 1911, the Japanese got what they wanted through the
U.S.–Japan Treaty of Commerce and Navigation, and, in return, reiterated
an earlier promise—as encapsulated in the Gentlemen’s
Agreement of 1908 to restrict Japanese immigration to the United
States.