Japanese foreign policy during the Edo period has been called a policy of national seclusion (“sakoku”) because contact with Western nations was limited to the Dutch. The term somewhat obscures the fact that Japan maintained extensive but closely controlled contact with nearby Asian states. The term was actually a translation for a European characterization of Japan’s policy and was used to prevent wider contact with the outside at the end of the Edo period. The policy started to disintegrate in 1853 when Commodore Matthew C. Perry from the US demanded diplomatic and commercial relations with Japan.
