Why Did Japan Adopt The Sakoku Policy

Japan’s Sakoku Policy During the 17th to the 19th century, Japan adopted a policy where their whole country isolated from the outside world. This long period of national isolation was called the Sakoku policy. Why did Japan adopt this Sakoku policy that isolated them from the world? One was to stabilize the country and the other one was the fear of foreign conquest and the fear of Christianity. Sakoku policy was the foreign relation policy where Japan isolated from the rest of the world. No Japanese could travel abroad nor could other foreigners enter Japan. Outgoing ships were banned and people who moved away to other countries were banned from coming back home. They banned trade with all other nations except the Chinese, Korean and the Dutch. It was easy for Japan to keep this policy because it was a country surrounded by the sea and they were also good at being self-sufficient. People who disobeyed were punished and merchants were not looked upon in society at that time. The Sakoku …show more content…
The 16th century Japan was in chaos. There were different warlords in different regions trying to reunite Japan into one country. Towards the end, Tokugawa Ieyasu won the other regions and was able to reunite and stabilize the country. And founded what is known as the Tokugawa Shogunate. And because they just established the Tokugawa Shogunate, it was not stable and secure in the beginning. There were still people that did not consent to the Tokugawa rule. The Tokugawa took the fiefs resulting in the rebellion of the samurais. “The Tokugawas who destroyed their rice-bowls, privileges and families by confiscating the fiefs of their lords on different grounds or by reducing the size of the fiefs” (Sakoku Policy). This later resulted in the Shimabara Rebellion and the samurais were abandoned. However the Tokugawa were able to manage the rebellion and stabilize the country through the Sakoku