Directory_and_Chronicle_1868 — Page 627

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JAPAN.

Hakodadi, or have commercial intercourse with any foreigner, without permission from the officials, who claim a large percentage on the business transacted. There is an edict of 1637 still in force in the whole of Japan, which makes it a capital offence for natives to travel into other countries. Japanese seamen, even when accidentally cast on foreign shores, are on their return subjected to a rigorous examination, and sometimes imprison- ment, to purify them from the supposed pollution contracted abroad. The Dutch, who were the first permitted to visit the empire after the expulsion of the Portuguese, had their earliest factory on the island of Firato; but they were removed, in 1641, by the emperor's orders, to Nagasaki, where, in common with the Coreans and Chinese, they are allowed to bring their goods for sale; but the number of vessels allowed to come each year, and the quantity of each description of wares to be sold, are strictly defined: and the residents in the factory are restricted to eleven only. The ships, immediately on their arrival, are minutely searched, and the crews are kept, during their stay in port, completely secluded from the natives, on the small island of Decima, close to the harbour. All the business transactions are conducted by the natives of Japan.

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