Chanoine's Expedition is a French decision regarding 
Japan.
It requires 
France to have researched Naval Statistics and have at least a 120 relation with Japan.
It changes Japanese-French relation by positive 40, and gives Japan 0.1 years worth of research points, which will help them westernize if they haven't done so. It also gives France 22 prestige.
The player has to weight up the value of 22 prestige for the price of helping Japan.