THE CLOSING OF JAPAN
Japan’s shoguns closed Japan off from the world in the early 17th century
Early modern Japan had followed a very different trajectory from that of the United States. Where the US had grown rapidly, incorporating new lands and peoples as it surged westward, Japan had shut itself off from the outside world in the early 17th century. The cause of this enforced seclusion ultimately came down to the Tokugawa military government’s desire to prevent the conquest of Japan by foreign powers. Christianity, and in particular, Roman Catholicism, had made great inroads among the Japanese people after Portuguese missionaries had arrived there in the 16th century. At the height of its appeal, there were some 750,000 converts in Japan, representing about one-tenth of its population.
Japan’s shoguns, the supreme warlords who ruled Japan locked in their internecine wars with the feudal lords, or daimyo, were not initially troubled by the Christian religion. Over time, however, their attitude towards it hardened. The shoguns worried that the conversion of the people by Catholic priests would soften up the country for European conquest later on. To forestall potential foreign subversion, Christianity was ferociously persecuted and largely extinguished as a result.
In 1638, the shoguns closed Japan. Priests were forbidden entry, and to ensure that they did not arrive, the ships that might bring them were likewise refused access to Japanese ports. All other foreigners were denied entry except for Chinese, Koreans and Dutch, the last of whom were permitted to have a trading enclave in Nagasaki. Further, Japanese themselves were refused permission to travel abroad and banned from building ships that could make overseas voyages. The inhabitants of Japan were to be cut off from the world for good.
Control over the country and its population lay at the core of the Tokugawa shoguns concerns. To prevent rebellions by feudal daimyo, each lord had to spend a certain portion of his time in Edo, in the shogun’s presence. When the daimyo returned to his domains in the countryside to tend to his lands, he was compelled to leave behind his family members as hostages to his good behaviour.