[2] The Russian delegation arrived in Nagasaki on 12 August 1853, a month after the Americans, and began a series of negotiations that would lead to the signing of the Treaty of Shimoda with the Tokugawa Shogunate on 7 February 1855.

[5] The Admiralty made it a priority to prevent the Russians from using Japanese ports, but Stirling thought this was an excellent opportunity to make an agreement with the Land of the Rising Sun.

The negotiations mainly concerned war matters and regulated naval traffic in Japanese waters for the duration of the conflict, in effect almost closing the country again to foreign vessels.

[4]: 429 In August 1855 the Foreign Secretary Lord Clarendon entrusted Sir John Bowring, Governor of Hong Kong, with the task of claiming more significant commercial advantages for Britain in Japan.

The war in China ended with the Treaty of Tianjin, signed for Britain by James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, who was responsible for the burning down of the Summer Palace in Beijing.

[4][page needed] This stipulated that all British citizens who committed crimes against Japanese subjects or those of any other country were to be judged by consuls or other designated authorities under the laws of Great Britain.

The new Consul General, Harry Parkes, endeavored to keep his country neutral in the growing rivalry between the Tokugawa Shogunate and the pro-imperial forces, which later exploded in the Boshin War.

In order to renegotiate the terms of previous treaties and better study western culture and technology, a great expedition around the globe was organized, led by Iwakura Tomomi.

In England, he held fruitful talks with Lord Granville, British Foreign Secretary, in November 1872, in which Japan was asked to modernize its laws before it could effectively renegotiate treaties and abrogate extraterritoriality.

Internationally, all of the imperial government's efforts were concentrated on the abrogation of the so-called 'Unequal Treaties', which were in fact unilateral, non-reciprocal pacts that subscribed to an implicit subservience of the Japanese country to western nations.

In 1871 a decree was issued abolishing the Han, the territories of the Daimyo, reorganizing them into prefectures, while in the same year the Mikado worked to reduce the death penalty and flogging.

On 15 June 1886, in order to satisfy the imperial authorities, an Anglo-German delegation presented a plan to introduce mixed courts in the country to supervise cases between two parties of different nationalities.

[9]: 122 The dissent led the Japanese government to adopt a stricter attitude towards western diplomats and this inevitably stalled the negotiations at the very moment when a timid opening by the great powers was looming.

On 30 November 1888, the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation between the two powers was signed in Washington, the first to actually provide for a level playing field between the signatories, as Foreign Minister Matías Romero renounced extraterritoriality in exchange for the right of Mexican citizens to trade and reside in the Japanese hinterland.

The representatives of the lower house, elected by the people and with little political experience, would undoubtedly have opposed concessions to the West and obstructed the government's work, while there were loud calls in the streets for a unilateral abrogation of the existing treaties.

[9]: 131 Okuma succeeded in October 1899 in making new agreements with the United States, Germany, and Russia, but the Japanese population regarded these new treaties as yet another surrender against Japan.

The victim was none other than Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov, the future Tsar Nicholas II, and such a scandal forced the incumbent government to resign due to the difficult internal situation in the country.

Mutsu entrusted the delicate matter to Ōtori Keisuke, Minister Plenipotentiary in Korea, but he dismissed a British naval instructor in the service of the Koreans from his position.