This was an interesting time for Japan, as after the Christians came with firearms it revolutionized Japanese warfare from the melee fighting of the past to the more distant fighting of the future. However, eventually, the Christians became too problematic for Japan so they started to persecute them (a reverse of the Spanish Inquisition?). This led the Japanese to be 95% isolationist and then 5% trading with the outside world, the lucky country that was given access to trade with Japan was the Dutch. This benefited both countries in a unique way. Why? The simple idea of supply and demand. The Dutch were the window that the Japanese needed for what was happening in the West or the Outside world while the Japanese were a trading monopoly window that only the Dutch had, so they had a monopoly on what Japan imports and exports that they can trade with other countries around the world, which is very valuable. This is true due to economics, the idea of supply and demand. If other countries want Japan imports (or exports) than they cannot go to Japan directly as they had their isolationist policy, so the Dutch had a monopoly and can therefore charge at any price what they wanted the imports to be. Assuming that other countries wanting Japanese imports and exports in this period, this gives the Dutch a trading edge. Japan also benefits from this, as similar to an echo chamber, it may be good to be surrounded by people who think in a similar way to you and you will feel immediately accepted (echo chamber is my metaphor/simile for isolationism). However, the problem with the echo chamber is that though you may grow for a while, without the idea of new challenges in thoughts and vision, you are bound to hit an apex. The Dutch gave them a little push to increase beyond the Echo Chamber which could be seen with their addition of Dutch Studies, Electricity, and other Western Ideas. If they were fully isolationist, would this have happened eventually? I mean the Americans came only to make trading with the Japanese, but I believe this forceful attempt in trade (unlike the Dutch) would have made Japan more interested in America as someone to ridicule as they forced them to trade in comparison to the Dutch who were given consent.
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