The answer is that early on the English were looking for a "Northwest Passage". This would be a shorter trade route to East Asia. For a long time it was believed that there was a large body of water in North America that would lead to the Orient. The English were interested in the raw materials that they could find in North America, including the islands of the Caribbean.
Philippine sea, sea of Japan and Pacific Ocean.
The Islands of Japan are so narrow that no point in the country lies more than 150 km (93 miles) from sea waters.
To the West, there is the sea of Japan, which separates Japan from the Asian mainland. To the north, lies the sea of Okhotsk, and to the south is the East China sea. All these are extensions of the Pacific ocean which lies to the east of Japan. To the far south-east lies the Philippine sea.
