The Ansei Treaties or the Ansei Five-Power Treaties (Japanese:安政五カ国条約) are a series of treaties signed in 1858, during the Japanese Ansei

Ansei

was a after Kaei and before Man'en. This period spanned the years from November 1854 through March 1860. The reigning emperor was .- Change of era :...

 era, between Japan on the one side, and the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, Netherlands

Kingdom of the Netherlands

The Kingdom of the Netherlands is a sovereign state and constitutional monarchy with territory in Western Europe and in the Caribbean. The four parts of the Kingdom—Aruba, Curaçao, the Netherlands, and Sint Maarten—are referred to as "countries", and participate on a basis of equality...

 and France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 on the other. The first treaty, also called the Harris Treaty, was signed by the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in July 1858, with France, Russia, Great Britain, and the Netherlands quickly following the US example within the year: Japan was forced to apply to other nations the conditions granted to the United States under the "most favoured nation" provision.

Content

The most important points of these "Unequal Treaties

Unequal Treaties

“Unequal treaty” is a term used in specific reference to a number of treaties imposed by Western powers, during the 19th and early 20th centuries, on Qing Dynasty China and late Tokugawa Japan...

" are:

• exchange of diplomatic agents.
• Edo
  Edo
  , also romanized as Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868...
  
  , Kobe
  Kobe
  , pronounced , is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, approximately west of Osaka...
  
  , Nagasaki, Niigata
  Niigata, Niigata
  is the capital and the most populous city of Niigata Prefecture, Japan. It lies on the northwest coast of Honshu, the largest island of Japan, and faces the Sea of Japan and Sado Island....
  
  , and Yokohama
  Yokohama
  is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
  
  ’s opening to foreign trade as ports.
• ability of foreign citizens to live and trade at will in those ports (only opium
  Opium
  Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...
  
   trade was prohibited).
• a system of extraterritoriality
  Extraterritoriality
  Extraterritoriality is the state of being exempt from the jurisdiction of local law, usually as the result of diplomatic negotiations. Extraterritoriality can also be applied to physical places, such as military bases of foreign countries, or offices of the United Nations...
  
   that provided for the subjugation of foreign residents to the laws of their own consular courts instead of the Japanese law system.
• fixed low import-export duties, subject to international control, thus depriving the Japanese government control of foreign trade and protection of national industries (the rate would go as low as 5% in the 1860s.)

Components

The five treaties known collectively as the Ansei Treaties were:

• The Treaty of Amity and Commerce (United States-Japan)
  Treaty of Amity and Commerce (United States-Japan)
  The , also called Harris Treaty, between the United States and Japan was signed at the Ryōsen-ji in Shimoda on July 29, 1858. It opened the ports of Yokohama and four other Japanese cities to American trade and granted extraterritoriality to foreigners, among other stipulations.-The Treaty:The...
  
   on July 29, 1858.
• The Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the Netherlands and Japan on August 18, 1858.
• The Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Russia and Japan on August 19, 1858.
• The Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce
  Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce
  The was signed on August 26, 1858 by Lord Elgin and the then representatives of the Japanese government . This was an unequal treaty, that gave Japan semi-colonial status.The concessions which Japan made were threefold:...
  
   on August 26, 1858.
• The Treaty of Amity and Commerce between France and Japan
  Treaty of Amity and Commerce between France and Japan
  The Treaty of Amity and Commerce between France and Japan was signed in Edo on October 9, 1858, by Jean-Baptiste Louis Gros, the commander of the French expedition in China, assisted by Charles de Chassiron and Alfred de Moges, opening diplomatic relations between the two countries...
  
   on October 9, 1858.

Further reading

• Omoto Keiko, Marcouin Francis (1990) Quand le Japon s'ouvrit au monde (French) Gallimard, Paris, ISBN 2070760847
• Polak
  Christian Polak
  Christian Philippe Polak is a French businessman and author who has published several books on 19th-century Franco-Japanese relations; one Le Monde book review called him "the best specialist on this question".-Career:...
  
  , Christian. (2001). Soie et lumières: L'âge d'or des échanges franco-japonais (des origines aux années 1950). Tokyo: Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie Française du Japon, Hachette Fujin Gahōsha (アシェット婦人画報社).
• __________. (2002). 絹と光: 知られざる日仏交流100年の歴史 (江戶時代-1950年代) Kinu to hikariō: shirarezaru Nichi-Futsu kōryū 100-nen no rekishi (Edo jidai-1950-nendai). Tokyo: Ashetto Fujin Gahōsha, 2002. 10-ISBN 4-573-06210-6; 13-ISBN 978-4-573-06210-8; OCLC 50875162