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Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation (日英通商航海条約 Nichi-Ei Tsūshō Kōkai Jōyaku?) signed by Britain and Japan, on July 16, 1894, was a breakthrough agreement; it heralded the end of the unequal treaties and the system of extraterritoriality in Japan. Beginning July 17, 1899, British nationals in Japan were subject to Japanese laws and courts, instead of British laws and consular courts. Other countries soon followed suit and the system of separate laws, which governed all the foreigners who were obliged to reside in the treaty ports, was thus abolished.
The treaty was signed in London by John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley for Britain and Aoki Shuzo for Japan. It was a necessary pre-condition to the Anglo-Japanese alliance of 1902, as an alliance cannot be formed between unequal contracting parties. One of the important contributors to the negotiations leading to the treaty was the Minister Hugh Fraser, who died in Tokyo about a month before the treaty was concluded. Another was John Harington Gubbins.