After two centuries, the seclusion policy, or Sakoku, under the shoguns of the Edo period came to an end when the country was forced open to trade by the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854.

The Tokugawa shogunate retreated back into a policy of isolationism, the Sakoku ( 鎖国 ?, " locked country ") forbidding contact with most outside countries.

However, because of these elements, the Sakoku policy of self-exile is enacted, leaving the country in isolation, apart from limited trade with the Dutch and Chinese at Nagasaki.

The arrival of the fleet would trigger the end of Japan's 200 year policy of seclusion ( Sakoku ).

* Sakoku ( 鎖国 ) — policy of maritime trade restrictions in Tokugawa Japan

The Japanese government claims that the name Sea of Japan was internationally used since the 17th century and established by the early 19th century, during a period in which Japan was under an isolationist policy ( Sakoku ) of the Tokugawa shogunate, which restricted cultural exchange and commerce with foreign countries except China and the Netherlands until 1854.

After being given free rein in Oda Nobunaga's period, the missionaries were forced out little by little, until finally, in the Tokugawa era, Christianity was banned under the Sakoku national isolation policy, during which time, Japanese foreign trade was restricted to Chinese and Dutch traders based at Dejima in Nagasaki ; however, Kirishitan ( Japanese Christian ) worship continued underground.

Niijima left feudal Japan in 1864 when going abroad was illegal by Sakoku policy, at the age of twenty-one, and found his way to Boston, Massachusetts, where he attended Phillips Academy, Amherst College, and Andover Theological Seminary under the name Joseph Hardy Neesima.

Sakai was still an important trade center during the Edo Period but was involved only in inland trade due to the Sakoku policy of the Tokugawa government.

In 1639, after suppressing a rebellion blamed on the Christian influence, the ruling Tokugawa shogunate retreated into an isolationist policy, the Sakoku.

The Sakoku policy remained in effect until 1853 with the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry and the opening of Japan.

While exploring Kunashir Island ( Kunashiri in Japanese ), Golovnin was lured ashore, taken prisoner, charged with violating Sakoku ( a Japanese policy prohibiting foreigners from entering Japan ), and held captive for two years by the Japanese on the island of Hokkaido.

Tokugawa Iemitsu announced his Sakoku policy.

* 1636-Introduction of the Sakoku policy and interdiction of foreign travel or return from foreign countries for Japanese nationals.

By Sakoku policy of the Tokugawa shogunate, Edo intellectuals could not have any positive contact with Western civilization, and so Rangaku, Dutch learning, was the only window to the West.

Due to the nation's self-imposed isolation policy of Sakoku, few foreign medical texts were permitted into Japan at that time.

Upon his return to Japan, and after the introduction of the Seclusion policy ( Sakoku ), Tokubei wrote an essay titled " Tenjiku Tokai Monogatari " ( 天竺渡海物語, " Relations of sea travels to India ") on his adventures in foreign countries, which became very popular in Japan.

Japan enjoyed a period of relative peace during the Sakoku period from 1600 to the mid-19th century, also called the " Pax Tokugawa ".

While many believe that during the Sakoku the political power of the samurai led to muskets being banned in Japan, this is a misconception brought on by romantic views.

A Chinese junk in Japan, at the beginning of the Sakoku period ( 1644-1648 Japanese woodblock print )

This Sakoku Edict ( Sakoku-rei, 鎖国令 ) of 1635 was the third of a series issued by Tokugawa Iemitsu ( 徳川 家光 ), shogun ( 将軍 ) of Japan from 1623 to 1651.

Note that Putiatin's arrival and his own war vessels on the other side of Japan around the same time certainly contributed to the foreign pressure on Japan and its Sakoku.

Towards the end of the Sakoku period, Japan had started manufacturing Western-style ships on her own only slightly earlier, such as the 1854 Shohei Maru.

At the time of the Sakoku it was illegal to leave Japan and the remaining two survivors were jailed and interrogated.

A Chinese junk ( ship ) | junk in Japan, at the beginning of the Sakoku period ( 1644 – 48 Japanese woodblock print ).

( 2009 ) Sakoku to iu Gensetsu .（ 大島明秀 『「 鎖国 」 という言説 』） Kyoto in Japan: Minerva Publisher.

After nearly two centuries of seclusion by " Sakoku " in Japan, the two countries became very important partners from the second half of the 19th century in the military, economic, legal and artistic fields.

It primarily referred to Dutch traders who were the only Europeans allowed to trade with Japan during Sakoku, its 200-year period of isolation.

Ultimately Fosdick's `` Fit to fight '' slogan swept across the country and every well-known red-light district in the United States was closed, a hundred and ten of them.

In addition, the border with Turkey is closed, making access to sea ports difficult and transportation logistics challenging to a country largely dependent upon imports.

The country closed its military bases in Bangui and Bouar in 1997 as a part of its new Africa policy and relations with C. A. R.

Due to high operating costs, the country ’ s sole oil refinery, at Assab, was closed

In France, film production and exhibition closed down as its personnel became part of the general military mobilization of the country at the beginning of the war.

There is a campaign to bring some closed lines back into service, in particular the Limerick-Sligo line ( the Western Railway Corridor ), to facilitate economic regeneration in the west, which has lagged behind the rest of the country.

At the end of China ’ s bloody civil war, in the early and mid 1900s, the country quickly closed off its borders to many outside countries and only maintained diplomatic ties with the Soviet Union.

Just after independence was achieved, Paraguay was governed from 1814 by the dictator José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, who closed the borders of the country and prohibited trade or any relation with the exterior until his death in 1840.

The NATO subheadquarters in Malta was closed at the request of the government, and the U. S. Sixth Fleet discontinued recreational visits to the country.

A separate railway line exists in the east of the country between Choibalsan and the Trans-Siberian at Borzya ; however, that line is closed to passengers beyond the Mongolian town of Chuluunkhoroot.

Schools across the country were dismissed early and ordered closed.

This system is used in many countries, including Finland ( open list ), Latvia ( open list ), Sweden ( open list ), Israel ( where the whole country is one closed list constituency ), Brazil ( open list ), the Netherlands ( open list ), Russia ( closed list ), South Africa ( closed list ), Democratic Republic of the Congo ( open list ).

In more recent years, however, many country pubs have either closed down, or have been converted to establishments intent on providing seating facilities for the consumption of food, rather than a venue for members of the local community meeting and convivially drinking.

Ireland was brought to a standstill on the day, because the government had ordered schools, offices, and stores across the country closed because a public holiday as part of the national day of mourning had been declared.

* Tens of thousands of Afghan refugees stream toward the closed borders with Iran and Pakistan ( there are already two million refugees in each country from the twenty years of Afghani-Soviet War then Afghan Civil War ).

At that time, there was a renewed interest in " Japanese studies " ( kokugaku ), perhaps as a result of the closed country policy.

Since 2000, Saks has closed a number of locations, including White Plains, Garden City, and Southampton in New York, as well as other suburban, and " downtown " locations around the country.

* June 16 – All German and Italian consulates in the United States are ordered closed and their staffs to leave the country by July 10.

Yemeni authorities also closed down the local offices of the US cargo firms United Parcel Service and FedEx, who had already suspended all shipments out of the country and pledged full co-operation with investigators.

Also in 2002, Albertsons, due to financial difficulties, closed several of its stores across the country including all stores in the Des Moines, Iowa metro market.

However, a Japanese joint venture, Solomon Taiyo Ltd., which operated the only fish cannery in the country, closed in mid-2000 as a result of the ethnic disturbances.

In March 2012 the Norwegian Foreign Ministry announced that the Norwegian embassy in Damascus will be temporarily closed, mainly due to the deteriorating security situation in the country, however Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre also emphasized the closing being a political signal.