Understanding the Gentlemen’s Agreement: The Story of US-Japanese Relations and Immigration Policies

Gentlemen’s Agreement

Agreement between US and Japan limiting number of Japanese immigrants.

The Gentlemen’s Agreement was an informal agreement between the United States and the Empire of Japan, reached in 1907-1908, to limit Japanese immigration to the United States. The agreement was named because it was based on a gentlemen’s agreement between President Theodore Roosevelt and Japanese Ambassador to the US, Takahira Kogorō.

The agreement was made in response to growing US hostility towards Japanese immigrants in California. The state had passed laws that discriminated against Asian immigrants, particularly Japanese and Chinese immigrants. To avoid conflict with Japan, Roosevelt made an agreement with the Japanese government to limit the number of Japanese immigrants to the US.

Under the agreement, Japan agreed to stop issuing passports to laborers intending to work in the United States. In return, the US government agreed to allow Japanese immigrants who were already in the country to remain and to allow Japanese wives and children to join their husbands in the US.

The Gentlemen’s Agreement was never a formal treaty, and its enforcement relied on voluntary compliance. However, Japan’s compliance with the agreement led to a decrease in Japanese immigration to the US until the agreement was nullified by the Immigration Act of 1924.

The Gentlemen’s Agreement is significant in US-Japanese relations because it helped to prevent a diplomatic crisis between the two countries and highlighted the discriminatory treatment of immigrants in the United States.

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