▶︎ AMA Podcast (S-02, E-18) with Simon Partner, Professor of History, Duke University

Real Gaijin — Japan’s Business, Culture & Life Podcast: A podcast about Japan’s economy, work culture, foreign residents, regional revitalization, and the people shaping the country’s future. · Jul 11, 2026 · 1h 8m

Foreigners have been visiting and trading with Japan for centuries, but from the 1630s the Tokugawa shogunate imposed strict limits on foreign contact. For more than two centuries, European trade was largely confined to the Dutch trading post on Dejima in Nagasaki, while Chinese merchants and a handful of other neighboring states maintained tightly regulated relations.

Following the arrival of U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry’s “Black Ships” (Kurofune, 黒船) in 1853 and the treaties that followed, Japan reopened its ports beginning in 1859. As the country entered the turbulent 1860s, Yokohama…