The history of the Dutch trading post on Dejima began in 1609, when the Tokugawa shogunate granted the Netherlands trade rights with Japan and Dutch merchants set up a bare-bones trading house in Hirado near Nagasaki. That establishment was steadily expanded until 1641, when the entire Dutch operation was moved to the artificial island of Dejima in Nagasaki. This relocation marked the beginning of a 218-year period during which the Netherlands was the only Western country allowed to trade with Japan. Dejima became Japan’s window on the world and a place of economic as well as cultural exchange, with the Dutch bringing in knowledge that greatly shaped their host country’s subsequent modernisation.
The sea around the island was filled in after the Meiji Restoration of 1868, connecting Dejima to the mainland, but in recent years the city of Nagasaki has worked to restore the original appearance of the former trading post. A bridge completed in 2017 leads to a cluster of structures that replicate the quarters of Dutch diplomats and traders and are open to the public. Meanwhile in Hirado, a reproduction of the Dutch trading house was unveiled some 370 years after the original’s closure.