Renegotiating Japan’s Unequal Treaties

Japan was compelled to open its doors to Western commerce in the 1850s and 1860s. Yet because the treaties signed at that time reflected the Western powers’ dominant position, Japanese foreign policy’s prime imperative in the initial decades afterward was to rectify these unequal treaties. This book, appearing in English for the first time, explains the political process of the negotiations attempting revision of the treaties in the context of events both inside and outside Japan.