Outside, Foreign

Interesting Fact

In the early 1600s, Japan's rulers became concerned about growing European influence, Christianity, and the possibility of foreign powers interfering in Japanese politics. As a result, "the Tokugawa shogunate" adopted a policy of isolation known as Sakoku ("closed country"). For more than 200 years, most foreigners were forbidden from entering Japan, Japanese citizens were banned from traveling abroad, and trade with Europe was largely restricted to a tiny artificial island called "Dejima" in Nagasaki. To many people living in Japan at the time, everything beyond the country's shores was simply 外 — the outside world.