Perry Opens Japan

Setting the scene

Commodore Matthew Perry's expedition to Japan in 1853-1854 ended Japan's 220-year policy of sakoku (national seclusion). Since the 1630s, Japan's Tokugawa shogunate had restricted foreign contact to Dutch and Chinese traders at Nagasaki, fearing colonialism and Christian missionary influence. By the 1850s, American whalers and merchants in the Pacific needed coaling stations and protection for shipwrecked sailors, who were often imprisoned or killed in Japan. President Millard Fillmore ordered Perry to negotiate a treaty opening Japan.

What happened

Perry arrived in Edo (Tokyo) Bay on July 8, 1853, with four 'Black Ships'—steam-powered warships that impressed the Japanese with their technology and smoke. He delivered a letter from Fillmore demanding opening of ports, then withdrew, promising to return. He came back in February 1854 with eight ships and, after negotiations, signed the Convention of Kanagawa on March 31, 1854. The treaty opened two ports (Shimoda and Hakodate) to American ships for supplies, ensured good treatment of shipwrecked sailors, and allowed a U.S. consul in Shimoda. It did not establish trade, but that followed in the 1858 Harris Treaty.

Why it still matters

Perry's mission, backed by gunboat diplomacy, ended Japanese isolation and triggered the collapse of the Tokugawa shogunate. The shock of Western superiority led to the Meiji Restoration in 1868, when reformers overthrew the shogun and modernized Japan, transforming it into Asia's first industrial power. In Japan, Perry is a controversial figure—seen as an agent of imperialism who forced Japan open, but also as the catalyst for modernization. The expedition demonstrated American expansion into the Pacific and established the pattern of using naval power to open Asian markets, a policy continued throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Background

Tokugawa isolation ended within years.