Isolationism is the term used to describe the foreign policies of China and Japan during the 17th century. Both China and Japan encounters isolationism as they set their motive to prevent foreign attractions from threatening their values and society. The Tokugawa shogunate kept Japan isolated from 1603 until 1853. The involvement of the British in the Opium War warned Japan to strengthen its borders and political power as they believed that Western ideologies unbalance the old system in Japan. European merchants struggled to trade with China under the Qing dynasty because Chinese were little interested in goods that Europeans brought there and they considered European to be barbarous.
