ABSTRACT
There were few foreigners of any description in Japan until the end of the 1850s. Commander Perry of the United States navy breached the traditional Japanese policy of seclusion when in 1853 he demanded in the name of his government that Japan should open up some of her ports to foreign trade. But even in the pre-Perry period Japan had not been cut off entirely from the rest of the world. During the long isolation the Tycoon’s government had permitted the Dutch to maintain a ‘factory’ on the small artificial island of Deshima in Nagasaki harbour. The Japanese government signed a treaty with the United States on 29 July 1858, and quickly upon its heels came a British mission. The Japanese government signed a treaty with the United States on 29 July 1858, and quickly upon its heels came a British mission.
