gentlemen's agreement

1. an agreement that, although unenforceable at law, is binding as a matter of personal honor.

2. an unwritten agreement by a socially prominent clique, private club, etc., to discriminate against or refuse to accept members of certain religious, racial, national, or other groups.

Also, gentleman's agreement.

[1885-90, Amer.]

* * *

▪ United States-Japanese agreement

      (1907), U.S.-Japanese understanding, in which Japan agreed not to issue passports to emigrants to the United States, except to certain categories of business and professional men. In return, President Theodore Roosevelt (Roosevelt, Theodore) agreed to urge the city of San Francisco to rescind an order by which children of Japanese parents were segregated from white students in the schools.

      The issue reflected the prejudices of Californians who feared that Japanese immigrants (a thousand arrivals monthly) would depress wages and gain control of most of the good farming land. The Japanese government carried out faithfully its part of the agreement and the San Francisco school board repealed the segregation order, but the bias and discrimination against Japanese in California continued.

* * *