Townsend Harris, (born Oct. 3, 1804, Sandy Hill, N.Y., U.S.—died Feb. 25, 1878, New York City), U.S. politician and diplomat, the first Western consul to reside in Japan, whose influence helped shape the future course of Japanese–Western relations.
A minor Democratic politician, Harris became the president of the New York City Board of Education in 1846 and was responsible for the establishment of the Free Academy (now City College of The City University of New York) in 1847. He left New York after 1847 to embark on a series of financially disastrous trading voyages in the Pacific and Indian oceans. He was living in Shanghai in 1853 when Commo. Matthew C. Perry passed through the city on his way to Japan, which he opened to trade with the West. Harris’ bid to accompany Perry was rejected, whereupon Harris used his political connections in Washington, D.C., to have himself appointed (1855) the first consul general to Japan.
Harris arrived in Japan in the summer of 1856 and prepared to take up residence in accordance with the terms of the Treaty of Kanagawa, signed between the Japanese government and Perry in 1854. The Japanese, however, did not welcome Harris, and their repeated attempts to create difficulties for him forced him to establish his consulate in a Buddhist temple in the small town of Shimoda.
Unlike Perry, Harris had no means for enforcing his demands, and for a long time the Japanese authorities simply ignored his presence. Eventually his sincerity and perseverance were rewarded; a change within the Japanese ruling circle brought to power a group more favourably disposed to concessions to the West, and Harris was even granted several audiences with the shogun, or hereditary military dictator. Taking advantage of the British and French defeat of China in the opening rounds of the “Arrow” War (1856–60), Harris persuaded the Japanese to sign a commercial treaty (see Harris treaty) on July 29, 1858. Similar treaties soon were signed between Japan and other Western countries. Although these agreements were not without inequalities, they were, nonetheless, more fair than most other treaties between Asian and Western countries of the time, largely because of Harris’ efforts. He resigned in 1861 and returned to New York City, where he was active in politics until his death.