Japan-US Gentlemen's Agreement

Gentlemen's Agreement on Restricting Japanese Immigration to the United States. After Hawaii became a Dependent Territory in the United States (1900), tensions in Japan-U.S. relations arose over the problem of Japanese exclusionism, which had increased dramatically. The United States stressed the need for Japan to implement voluntary travel restrictions in order to suppress moves to enact strict immigration restrictions within the United States. Thus, between November 1907 (Meiji 40) and February of the following year, seven letters and memoranda were exchanged between Japan and the United States, with the Japanese side voluntarily banning all new immigrants except for those returning to the United States, parents and wives of immigrants currently in the United States, students, and merchants. Later, the issue of women going to the United States through picture marriages became a topic of anti-Japanese debate, but in 1924 (Taisho 13), this agreement was abolished with the passage of the Japanese Exclusion Act, which banned the entry of foreigners who could not become naturalized.

[Kobayashi Yukio]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

日本人の対米移民制限に関する紳士協約。アメリカのハワイ属領制実施（1900）以後激増した日本人移民排斥問題をめぐって日米関係が緊張し、アメリカは、同国内での厳重な移民制限法制定の動きを抑えるため日本による自主的渡航制限実施の必要性を説いた。かくて1907年（明治40）11月から翌年2月の間に日米間に七篇(へん)の書簡・覚書が交換され、日本側は、再渡航者、在米移民の両親・妻子、学生、商人を除く新規移民をすべて自主的に禁止した。のち、写真結婚による渡米婦人問題が排日論議の的になったが、1924年（大正13）、帰化不能外国人の入国を禁じた排日移民法の成立で本協約は廃棄された。

［小林幸男］

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