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52 鎖国
National Isolation

Meaning

Primary

National Isolation

Secondary

Exclusion Of Foreigners

Word Type

noun, verbal noun

Reading

さこく

Notes

Groups

None

Remarks

  • Many saw さ foreign cock こく for the first time when National Isolation ended.

  • Sakoku (鎖国, "closed country") was the isolationist foreign policy of the Japanese Tokugawa shogunate (aka Bakufu) under which, for a period of 214 years, relations and trade between Japan and other countries were severely limited, nearly all foreign nationals were barred from entering Japan and common Japanese people were kept from leaving the country. It lasted from 1633 - 1853. It ended when the American Black Ships commanded by Matthew Perry forced the opening of Japan to trade with the west.

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