Japan closed its doors. The Dutch got a window.
In 1641, when Japan closed itself off from the world, it left one door open: a small artificial island in Nagasaki Bay called Dejima. For the next 213 years, the Dutch were the only Western nation permitted to trade with Japan. Not to live there. Not to cross the bridge. Just to trade, from a 15,000 square metre island connected to the mainland by a single guarded bridge.
During the Napoleonic Wars, when France occupied the Netherlands, Dejima became the only place on earth still flying the Dutch flag. The rest of the country had fallen. The island held.
Through that single point of contact came the Rangaku movement, Dutch learning, where Japanese scholars studied Western medicine, astronomy, mathematics and cartography, all accessed through the Dutch at Dejima. Two countries, one bridge, 200 years of exchange.
A Dutch company in Tokyo today is less unusual than it sounds. We're just the latest in a very long line.
