Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Britain and Japan (1858)
E1002757
The Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Britain and Japan (1858) was a pivotal unequal treaty that opened Japan to British trade and diplomatic relations during the late Tokugawa shogunate, significantly influencing Japan’s subsequent modernization and foreign policy.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Britain and Japan (1858) canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T12789362 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Britain and Japan (1858) Context triple: [James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, notableWork, Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Britain and Japan (1858)]
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A.
Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the United States and Japan
The Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the United States and Japan was an 1858 agreement that opened Japan to extensive American trade and diplomatic relations, marking a key step in ending Japan’s isolationist policies.
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B.
Harris Treaty of 1858
The Harris Treaty of 1858 was a landmark U.S.–Japan agreement that opened Japanese ports to American trade, granted extraterritorial rights to U.S. citizens, and marked a key step in ending Japan’s isolationist policies.
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C.
Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation
The Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation was a 1794 agreement between the United States and Great Britain that sought to resolve lingering issues from the American Revolutionary War and normalize trade and diplomatic relations.
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D.
Treaty of Shimoda
The Treaty of Shimoda was an 1855 agreement between the Russian Empire and Japan that established formal diplomatic relations and defined their borders in the Kuril Islands and surrounding regions.
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E.
Burlingame Treaty
The Burlingame Treaty was an 1868 agreement between the United States and China that expanded diplomatic relations, affirmed mutual rights of travel and residence, and marked a brief period of more open and equal Sino-American engagement.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Britain and Japan (1858) Target entity description: The Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Britain and Japan (1858) was a pivotal unequal treaty that opened Japan to British trade and diplomatic relations during the late Tokugawa shogunate, significantly influencing Japan’s subsequent modernization and foreign policy.
-
A.
Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the United States and Japan
The Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the United States and Japan was an 1858 agreement that opened Japan to extensive American trade and diplomatic relations, marking a key step in ending Japan’s isolationist policies.
-
B.
Harris Treaty of 1858
The Harris Treaty of 1858 was a landmark U.S.–Japan agreement that opened Japanese ports to American trade, granted extraterritorial rights to U.S. citizens, and marked a key step in ending Japan’s isolationist policies.
-
C.
Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation
The Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation was a 1794 agreement between the United States and Great Britain that sought to resolve lingering issues from the American Revolutionary War and normalize trade and diplomatic relations.
-
D.
Treaty of Shimoda
The Treaty of Shimoda was an 1855 agreement between the Russian Empire and Japan that established formal diplomatic relations and defined their borders in the Kuril Islands and surrounding regions.
-
E.
Burlingame Treaty
The Burlingame Treaty was an 1868 agreement between the United States and China that expanded diplomatic relations, affirmed mutual rights of travel and residence, and marked a brief period of more open and equal Sino-American engagement.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
bilateral treaty
ⓘ
international agreement ⓘ unequal treaty ⓘ |
| aim |
to formalize diplomatic relations between Britain and Japan
ⓘ
to secure commercial privileges for Britain in Japan ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
Anglo-Japanese Treaty of 1858
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce (1858) NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| concludedIn | 1858 ⓘ |
| countrySignatory |
Japan
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
United Kingdom NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| effect |
contributed to the unequal treaty system imposed on Japan
ⓘ
established diplomatic relations between Britain and Japan ⓘ fixed low import and export tariffs in Japan ⓘ granted extraterritorial rights to British subjects in Japan ⓘ influenced Japan’s subsequent modernization policies ⓘ limited Japanese tariff autonomy ⓘ opened Japanese ports to British trade ⓘ shaped Japan’s foreign policy in the late 19th century ⓘ |
| field | international law ⓘ |
| geopoliticalContext |
expansion of British trade in Asia
ⓘ
gunboat diplomacy in East Asia ⓘ |
| historicalEra | Bakumatsu period NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| historicalPeriod | late Tokugawa shogunate NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| influencedBy | Western imperialism in East Asia ⓘ |
| inForceDuring |
Bakumatsu period
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
early Meiji period ⓘ |
| legalStatus | binding international treaty at time of conclusion ⓘ |
| locationAffected |
British consular jurisdictions in Japan
ⓘ
Japanese treaty ports ⓘ |
| longTermConsequence |
contributed to domestic opposition to the Tokugawa shogunate
ⓘ
stimulated Japanese industrialization ⓘ was later revised and superseded by more equal treaties ⓘ |
| partOf | series of unequal treaties with Western powers ⓘ |
| politicalCharacter | unequal in favor of Britain ⓘ |
| relatedAgreement |
Treaty of Amity and Commerce (United States–Japan, 1858)
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Treaty of Amity and Commerce between France and Japan (1858) NERFINISHED ⓘ Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Russia and Japan (1858) NERFINISHED ⓘ Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the Netherlands and Japan (1858) NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
Sakoku (Japanese isolation policy)
ⓘ
opening of Japan ⓘ |
| signatory |
British Empire
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Tokugawa shogunate NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| signedIn | 1858 ⓘ |
| topic |
diplomatic relations
ⓘ
extraterritoriality ⓘ tariff regulations ⓘ trade ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Britain and Japan (1858) Description of subject: The Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Britain and Japan (1858) was a pivotal unequal treaty that opened Japan to British trade and diplomatic relations during the late Tokugawa shogunate, significantly influencing Japan’s subsequent modernization and foreign policy.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin
→
notableWork
→
Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Britain and Japan (1858)
ⓘ