Transcription: The arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry in Japan, 1853. The Takugawa Shogunate, or government, which ruled Japan from the beginning of the 17th century to the mid-19th century adopted a policy of national isolation. Contact with foreign countries was restricted to trade with China, the Netherlands, Korea, and the Ryukyu Kingdom. In 1853, Commodore Matthew C. Perry of the United States appeared off the coast of Uraga in Tokyo Bay with a fleet of four warships. He requested that Japan open its ports to ships from the United States.
