3 - Japan undermines extraterritoriality: Extradition in Japan 1885–1899

Summary

From 1871 onwards, the government of Meiji Japan began a campaign against the treaties of 1858 to 1869 which was not to end until all the old treaties had been revised in Japan's favour. The main aims of this campaign were the restoration of tariff autonomy and the end of extraterritoriality. The details of the negotiations which took place at the various conferences on treaty revision from 1882 onwards are becoming better known as the archives have been made available to scholars. But the campaign against the old treaties was not just a question of formal negotiations. In order to achieve success at the conference table, the Japanese set out to make the operation of the old treaties unworkable as far as the clauses relating to extraterritoriality were concerned. They were not wholly successful in this campaign, largely because they appear to have decided not to press home their advantage in order not to jeopardize their main purpose. But by the beginning of the 1890’s, the Japanese Government had effectively made clear to the foreign diplomats in Japan that extraterritoriality could not continue much longer.

The main methods used by the Japanese, partly at the prompting of foreign legal advisers, was a rigorous re-examination of the old treaties and a determined insistence on the letter of them. Faced with the disintegrating government of the bakufu and the Japanese lack of knowledge of international law, strong ministers such as Sir Harry Parkes had found it easy to push the ‘rights’ of the foreign powers beyond what a strict interpretation of the treaties would allow. In many cases this was no bad thing in that it allowed for the better government of foreigners in Japan. But these supposed rights were an obvious target for the Japanese.

From the very beginning of the Meiji period, the Japanese Government began to fight to regain its lost powers. It introduced a new legal system, embracing both criminal and civil codes, modelled on western ideas of jurisprudence. At the same time, the Japanese began to show an interest in asserting control over foreigners. By the middle 1870’s, almost in spite of themselves, they had brought under their jurisdiction the non-treaty power subjects in Japan. At the same time, they began a campaign to make the new Western-style regulations introduced from 1869 onwards binding on foreigners.