The “Gentlemen’s Agreement”

Introduction

Because British Columbia faced the Pacific Ocean, it drew many of its non–British newcomers from Asia, including Japan. Although the first known Japanese person to emigrate to Canada, Manzo Nagano, settled in the province in 1877, Japanese immigrants did not begin arriving in appreciable numbers until 1900. By 1914, however, only 10,000 Japanese had settled in the whole of Canada, by far the largest number in British Columbia.

Japan limited the number of males who could emigrate to this country to 400 a year, thereby becoming the only nation to specifically control the movement of its people to Canada. As a consequence, for several years thereafter most of the immigrants from Japan were women who had come to join their husbands. In 1928, Canada and Japan revised the gentlemen’s agreement of 1907 to restrict Japanese immigration to Canada to 150 persons annually, a quota that was rarely met.

The first gentleman was a member of a Japanese parliamentary delegation seeking amendment of British Columbia’s oppressive policies towards immigration from Asia.

The first wave of Japanese immigrants, called Issei, arrived between 1877 and 1928. Prior to 1907, most Japanese settlers were young men. In that year, at Canada’s insistence, Japan limited the number of males who could emigrate to this country to 400 a year, thereby becoming the only nation to specifically control the movement of its people to Canada. As a consequence, for several years thereafter most of the immigrants from Japan were women who had come to join their husbands. In 1928, Canada and Japan revised the gentlemen’s agreement of 1907 to restrict Japanese immigration to Canada to 150 persons annually, a quota that was rarely met. The Issei were invariably young and came from poor and overcrowded fishing and farming villages on the islands of Honshu and Kyushu. Most settled in or near Vancouver and Victoria, in fishing villages and pulp towns along the Pacific coast, and on farms in the Fraser Valley.

“Gentlemen’s Agreement” (1907 and 1928)

The Gentlemen’s Agreement was a response to the 1907 anti-Asian riots in Vancouver. Internment and relocation in World War II; deportation of many at the end of the War. In its policies regarding Japanese in Canada, the government followed the lead of the United States.

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This entry was last updated: November 5, 2014