Treaty of Commerce and Navigation between Japan and the United States of America
Signed at Washington, February 21, 1911
ARTICLE I The subjects or citizens of each of the High Contracting Parties shall have liberty to enter, travel and reside in the territories of the other to carry on trade, wholesale and retail, to own or lease and occupy houses, manufactories, warehouses and shops, to employ agents of their choice, to lease land for residential and commercial purposes, and generally to do anything incident to or necessary for trade upon the same terms as native subjects or citizens, submitting themselves to the laws and regulations there established.
They shall not be compelled, under any pretext whatever, to pay any charges or taxes other or higher than those that are or may be paid by native subjects or citizens.
The subjects or citizens of each of the High Contracting Parties shall receive, in the territories of the other, the most constant protection and security for their persons and property, and shall enjoy in this respect the same rights and privileges as are or may be granted to native subjects or citizens, on their submitting themselves to the conditions imposed upon the native subjects or citizens.
They shall, however, be exempt in the territories of the other from compulsory military service either on land or sea, in the regular forces, or in the national guard, or in the militia; from all contributions imposed in lieu of personal service, and from all forced loans or military exactions or contributions.
ARTICLE II The dwellings, warehouses, manufactories and shops of the subjects or citizens of each of the High Contracting Parties in the territories of the other, and all premises appertaining thereto used for purposes of residence or commerce, shall be respected. It shall not be allowable to proceed to make a domiciliary visit to, or a search of, any such buildings and premises, or to examine or inspect books, papers or accounts, except under the conditions and with the forms prescribed by the laws, ordinances and regulations for nationals.
ARTICLE III Each of the High Contracting Parties may appoint Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, Deputy Consuls and Consular Agents in all ports, cities and places of the other, except in those where it may not be convenient to recognize such officers. This exception, however, shall not be made in regard to one of the Contracting Parties without being made likewise in regard to all other Powers.
Such Consuls General, Consuls, Vice Consuls, Deputy Consuls and Consular Agents having received exequaturs or other sufficient authorizations from the Government of the country to which they are appointed, shall, on condition of reciprocity, have the right to exercise the functions and to enjoy the exemptions and immunities which are or may hereafter be granted to the consular officers of the same rank of the most favoured nation. The Government issuing exequaturs or other authorizations may in its discretion can-
cel the same on communicating the reasons for which it thought proper to do so.
ARTICLE IV There shall be between the territories of the two High Contracting Parties reciprocal freedom of commerce and navigation. The subjects or citizens of each of the Contracting Parties, equally with the subjects or citizens of the most favored nation, shall have liberty freely to come with their ships and cargoes to all places, ports and rivers in the territories of the other which are or may be opened to foreign commerce, subject always to the laws of the country to which they thus come.
ARTICLE V The import duties on articles, the produce or manufacture of the territories of one of the High Contracting Parties, upon importation into the territories of the other, shall henceforth be regulated either by special arrangements between the two countries or by the internal legislation of each.
Neither Contracting Party shall impose any other or higher duties or charges on the exportation of any article to the territories of the other than are or may be payable on the exportation of the like article to any other foreign country.
Nor shall any prohibition be imposed by either country on the importation or exportation of any article from or to the territories of the other which shall not equally extend to the like article imported from or exported to any other country. The last provision is not, however, applicable to prohibitions or restrictions maintained or imposed as sanitary measures or for purposes of protecting animals and useful plants.
ARTICLE VI The subjects or citizens of each of the High Contracting Parties shall enjoy in the territories of the other exemption from all transit duties and a perfect equality of treatment with native subjects or citizens in all that relates to warehousing, bounties, facilities and drawbacks.
ARTICLE VII Limited-liability and other companies and associations, commercial, industrial, and financial, already or hereafter to be organized in accordance with the laws of either High Contracting Party and domiciled in the territories of such Party, are authorized, in the territories of the other, to exercise their rights and appear in the courts either as plaintiffs or defendants, subject to the laws of such other Party.
The foregoing stipulation has no bearing upon the question whether a company or association organized in one of the two countries will or will not be permitted to transact its business or industry in the other, this permission remaining always subject to the laws and regulations enacted or established in the respective countries or in any part thereof.
ARTICLE VIII All articles which are or may be legally imported into the ports of either High Contracting Party from foreign countries in national vessels may likewise be imported into those in vessels of the other Contracting Party, without being liable to any other or higher duties or charges of whatever denomination than if such articles were imported in national vessels. Such reciprocal equality of treatment shall take effect without distinction, whether such articles come directly from the place of origin or from any other foreign place.
In the same manner, there shall be perfect equality of treatment in regard to exportation, so that the same export duties shall be paid, and the same bounties and drawbacks allowed, in the territories of each of the Contracting Parties on the exportation of any article which is or may be legally exported therefrom, whether such exportation shall take place in Japanese vessels or in vessels of the United States, and whatever may be the place of destination, whether a port of the other Party or of any third Power.
ARTICLE IX In all that the stationing, loading and unloading of vessels in the ports of the territories of the High Contracting Parties, no privileges shall be granted by either Party to national vessels which are not equally, in like cases, granted to the vessels of the other country; the intention of the Contracting Parties being that in these respects the respective vessels shall be treated on the footing of perfect equality.
ARTICLE X Merchant vessels navigating under the flag of Japan or that
of the United States and carrying the papers required by their national laws to prove their nationality shall in the United States and in Japan be deemed to be vessels of Japan or of the United States, respectively.
ARTICLE XI No duties of tonnage, harbour, pilotage, lighthouse, quarantine, or other similar or corresponding duties of whatever denomination, levied in the name or for the profit of Government, public functionaries, private individuals, corporations or establishments of any kind shall be imposed in the ports of the territories of either country upon the vessels of the other which shall not equally, under the same conditions, be imposed on national vessels in general, or on vessels of the most favoured nation. Such equality of treatment shall apply reciprocally to the respective vessels from whatever place they may arrive and whatever may be their place of destination.
ARTICLE XII Vessels charged with performance of regular scheduled postal service of one of the High Contracting Parties, whether belonging to the State or subsidized by it for the purpose, shall enjoy, in the ports of the territories of the other, the same facilities, privileges and immunities as are granted to like vessels of the most favoured nation.
ARTICLE XIII The coasting trade of the High Contracting Parties is excepted from the provisions of the present Treaty and shall be regulated according to the laws of Japan and the United States, respectively. It is, however, understood that the subjects or citizens of either Contracting Party shall enjoy in this respect most-favoured-nation treatment in the territories of the other.
A vessel of one of the Contracting Parties, laden in a foreign country with cargo destined for two or more ports of entry in the territories of the other, may discharge a portion of her cargo at one of the said ports, and, continuing her voyage to the other port or ports of destination, there discharge the remainder of her cargo, subject always to the laws, tariffs and customs regulations of the country of destination; and, in like manner and under the same reservation, the vessels of one of the Contracting Parties shall be permitted to load at several ports of the other for the same outward voyages.
ARTICLE XIV Except as otherwise expressly provided in this Treaty, the High Contracting Parties agree that, in all that concerns commerce and navigation, any privilege, favour or immunity which either Contracting Party has actually granted, or may hereafter grant, to the subjects or citizens of any other State shall be extended to the subjects or citizens of the other Contracting Party gratuitously, if the concession in favour of that other State shall have been gratuitous, and on the same or equivalent conditions, if the concession shall have been conditional.
ARTICLE XV The subjects or citizens of each of the High Contracting Parties shall enjoy in the territories of the other the same protection as native subjects or citizens in regard to patents, trade-marks and designs, upon fulfillment of the formalities prescribed by law.
ARTICLE XVI The present Treaty shall, from the date on which it enters into operation, supersede the Treaty of Commerce and Navigation dated the 22nd day of November, 1894; and from the same date the last-named Treaty shall cease to be binding.
ARTICLE XVII The present Treaty shall enter into operation on the 17th of July, 1911, and shall remain in force twelve years or until the expiration of six months from the date on which either of the Contracting Parties shall have given notice to the other of its intention to terminate the Treaty.
In case neither of the Contracting Parties shall have given notice to the other six months before the expiration of the said period of twelve years of its intention to terminate the Treaty, it shall continue operative until the expiration of six months from the date on which either Party shall have given such notice.