The Uraga Channel (浦賀水道, Uraga-suidō) is a waterway connecting Tokyo Bay to the Sagami Gulf.
In a narrow sense, Tokyo Bay is the area north of the straight line formed by the Cape Kannon (観音崎, Kannon-zaki) on the Miura Peninsula on one end and Cape Futtsu (富津岬, Futtsu-misaki) on the Boso Peninsula on the other end.
Due to its strategic location at the entrance of Edo Bay, Uraga has often been the first point of contact between visiting foreign ships and Japan.
[2] On July 14, 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry lowered the anchor of the squadron the Japanese called the Black Ships near Uraga at Kurihama (in present-day Yokosuka in Kanagawa Prefecture) at the mouth of the channel.
[3] On the return of the Commodore's squadron in 1854, the ships by-passed Uraga to anchor closer to Edo at Kanagawa, which is where the city of Yokohama now stands.