High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the United States and Japan was signed at the Ry sen-ji in Shimoda on July 29, 1858. It opened the ports of Edo and four other Japanese cities to American trade and granted extraterritoriality to foreigners, among other stipulations. The treaty followed the 1854 Convention of Kanagawa, which granted coaling rights for U.S. ships and allowed for a U.S. Consul in Shimoda. Although Commodore Matthew Perry secured fuel for U.S. ships and protection, he left the important matter of trading rights to Townsend Harris, another U.S. envoy who negotiated with the Tokugawa Shogunate; the treaty is therefore often referred to as the Harris Treaty. It took two years to break down Japanese resistance, but with the threat of looming British demands for similar privileges, the Tokugawa government eventually capitulated.