John A. Bingham to John A. Bingham , Envoy Extraordinary and, February 21, 1876

No. 189. Mr. Bingham to Mr. Fish.

Sir: On the 8th instant I received from Mr. Terashima, the Japanese foreign minister, a dispatch requesting me to notify our citizens to refrain from publishing newspapers or periodicals in the Japanese language within this empire; a copy of which dispatch I have the honor to inclose, (inclosure No. 1.) On the same day I replied to Mr. Terashima, requesting an official translation of the press laws issued by his government, a copy of which reply is herewith, (inclosure No. 2.) On the 17th instant the foreign minister sent me an official copy of the press-laws in Japanese, a translation of which, as made by Mr. Thompson, I have the honor to inclose, (inclosure No. 3.) Of these laws it seems to me proper to remark that by the first section all persons are prohibited from publishing a newspaper or magazine, either in native or foreign language, within this empire without license first obtained from the interior department; that by the fourth section, the proprietors, managers, and editors of such licensed publications are required to be Japanese subjects; that by the eighth section the names and residence of correspondents are required to be published, save in the matter of current news, when the article relates to the domestic or foreign policy, &c. of this government, and punishes all such publications under an assumed name; that the twelfth section prohibits and punishes seditious publications tending to incite to the violation of the laws, or to rebellion and resistance to lawful authority; that the thirteenth section subjects the writers and publishers of articles calculated to subvert the government, or to produce insurrection, to imprisonment; that the fourteenth section prohibits and punishes articles which tend to bring the laws into disrepute, and to hinder obedience thereto, or to excuse or defend offenders against the same; that the fifteenth section prohibits the publication of preliminary examinations, &c. in criminal cases; and that the sixteenth prohibits the publication of petitions without the consent of the officers to whom they are addressed.

It is to be observed that Mr. Terashima requests in his dispatch of the 8th instant that I notify my “countrymen to refrain from publishing a newspaper or periodical in the Japanese language,” while the laws enacted by his government prohibit the publication in Japan by foreigners of newspapers or periodicals in any language whatever.

By the laws inclosed, the privilege to print or publish in Japan is limited to Japanese subjects. The general provisions of these laws, in so far as they prohibit and punish the publication of libel, seditious articles, and the like, may be said to be unobjectionable. To restrict to Japanese subjects the privilege of license to print and publish any matter whatever, as these laws do, seems to me unwise and impolitic, and a manifest departure from the spirit, if not from the letter also, of the treaty of 1858 between Japan and the United States. The third article of that treaty secures the right to American citizens, as such, to reside within certain territorial limits in this empire, and, by implication, to enjoy therein all the rights common to the subjects of Japan; and the eighth article of the treaty assures to American’s resident in Japan “the free exercise of their religion,” which I infer carries with it the right to publish by the press, as well as by speech, the principles and scriptures of Christianity.

Before taking action upon Mr. Terashima’s request, I respectfully submit the whole subject to the Department for instructions, and beg leave to suggest whether it might not be well to insist that the press-laws be made general, so as to allow all foreigners, in common with Japanese subjects, to obtain license to print and publish, subject to the conditions and restrictions specified in the act, within the foreign concessions, and also to secure to the citizens of each foreign nationality the treaty-right to publish whatever pertains to the Christian religion, the principles of which have become incorporate in the laws and constitutions of all western nations.

I have, &c.,