Sakoku Edicts Tighten

1635

The Tokugawa shogunate issued the third in a series of sakoku edicts, forbidding Japanese subjects from leaving the country and Japanese abroad from returning, on pain of death. Overseas trade was funneled through a handful of ports and tightly monitored. Japan's long self-isolation was snapping shut, and the archipelago would remain sealed to most of the world for over two centuries.