Convention of Kanagawa

The Convention of Kanagawa, usually called the Treaty of Kanagawa, was a treaty of peace and amity between the United States and the empire of Japan concluded at Kanagawa on March 31, 1854. The United States acted through its commissioner Matthew Calbraith Perry, special ambassador to Japan, and Japan through four named commissioners. Its twelve articles declared permanent peace and friendship, opened the ports of Simoda and Hakodadi to American ships for wood, water, provisions and coal, and obliged Japan to assist and return shipwrecked American crews, who were to be free of confinement though subject to just laws. Americans at the two ports could move within set limits, goods and coin could be exchanged under temporary Japanese regulations, and a most-favored-nation clause gave the United States any privilege Japan later granted another nation. The treaty also allowed an American consul at Simoda after eighteen months and required ratification by both governments.