Doc Recap: 1854 Anglo-Japanese Treaty

Great Britain and Japan signed a treaty of friendship in Nagasaki just months after Perry left the Islands. It established the relation between the two countries and secured the opening of Japan for resupply. Explore the contents of the convention.

Sir James Sterling

CONVENTION BETWEEN HER MAJESTY AND THE EMPEROR OF JAPAN, SIGNED AT NAGASAKI IN THE ENLISH AND JAPANESE LANGUAGE, OCTOBER 14, 1854, RATIFICATIONS EXCHANGED AT NAGASAKI OCTOBER 9, 1855

It is agreed between Sir James Sterling, knight, rear admiral, and commander-in-chief of the ships and vessels of her Britannic Majesty in the East Indies and seas adjacent, and Mezi-no Chekfusno Kami, Obm yo of Nagasaki, and Nagai Evan Ocho, Omedski of Nagasaki, ordered by his Imperial Highness the Emperor of Japan to act herein, that –

1. The ports of Nagasaki (Fisen) and Hakodadi (Matsmai) shall be open to British ships for the purposes of effecting repairs and obtaining fresh water, provisions, and other supplies of any sort they may absolutely want for the use of the ships.

2. Nagasaki shall be open for the purposes aforesaid from and after the present date, and Hakodadi from and after the end of fifty days from the admiral’s departure from this port. The rules and regulations of each other these ports are to be complied with.

3. Only ships in distress from weather, or unmanageable, will be permitted to enter other ports than those specified in the foregoing articles, without permission from the Imperial government.

4. British ships in Japanese ports shall conform to the laws of Japan. If high officers or commanders of ships shall break any such laws, it will lead to the ports being closed. Should inferior persons break them, they are to be delivered over to the commanders of their ships for punishment.

5. In the ports of Japan, either now open or which may hereafter be opened to the ships or subjects of any foreign nation, British ships and subjects shall be entitled to admission and to the enjoyment of an equality of advantages with those of the most favored nation, always expecting the advantages accruing to the Dutch and Chinese from their existing relations with Japan.

6. This convention shall be ratified, and ratifications shall be exchanged, at Nagasaki, on behalf of her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain, and on behalf of his Highness the Emperor of Japan, within twelve months from the present date.

7. When this convention shall be ratified, no high officer coming to Japan shall alter it.

In witness whereof we have signed the same, and have affixed our seals thereunto, at Nagasaki, this 14th day of October, 1854.

JAMES STIRLING 

N.B. The Japanese text was signed by the Japanese plenipotentiaries.  

Source:

Hawks, Francis. Narrative of the Expedition of An American Squadron to The China Seas and Japan, Performed in the Years 1852, 1853, and 1854, under the Command of Commodore M.C. Perry, United States Navy by Order of the Government of the United States, Volume I. Washington D.C.: A.O.P. Nicholson, Printer, 1856.