Townsend Harris (October 4, 1804 – February 25, 1878) was an American merchant and politician who served as the first United States Consul General to Japan.

Harris was born in the village of Sandy Hill (now Hudson Falls), in Washington County in upstate New York.

Peaceful commercial relations, which give as well as receive benefits, is what the President wishes to establish with Siam, and such is the object of my mission.Finalization of the Bowring Treaty of 1855 delayed Harris for about a month, but he had only to negotiate minor points to transform it into the Harris Treaty of 1856.

American missionary Stephen Mattoon, who had acted as translator, was appointed the first United States consul to Siam.

[4][5][6] President Franklin Pierce named Harris the first Consul General to Tokugawa Japan[7] in July 1856, where he opened the first US Consulate at the Gyokusen-ji Temple in the city of Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture,[8] soon after Commodore Matthew Perry had first opened trade between the US and Japan in 1854.

At that time, Japan was not a nation united under one leader, but was politically made up of jealous feudal principalities; the Shogunate ended in 1868, in part in response to Harris as envoy from the US since 1854, as William Elliot Griffis described the changes inside Japan after it opened itself to trade with the US and European nations.

[9] Harris played an important political role in Japan in the 1850s and 1860s, alongside fellow Western diplomats Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek, Max von Brandt, Rutherford Alcock and Gustave Duchesne, Prince de Bellecourt.

Although these men were bound by personal friendship, national rivalries and differences in dealing with the Japanese led to conflict and antagonism.

[10] Harris demanded the courtesies due to an accredited envoy and refused to deliver his president's letter to anyone but the Shogun in Edo, and to him personally.

After prolonged negotiations lasting 18 months, Harris finally received a personal audience with the Shogun in the palace.

[6] During treaty negotiations in June 1857, Harris requested the provision of teenage sex servants for himself and his translator.