Foreigners have been visiting and trading with Japan for centuries, but from the 1630s the Tokugawa shogunate imposed strict limits on foreign contact. For more than two centuries, European trade was largely confined to the Dutch trading post on Dejima in Nagasaki, while Chinese merchants and a handful of other neighboring states maintained tightly regulated relations.

Following the arrival of U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry’s “Black Ships” (Kurofune, 黒船) in 1853 and the treaties that followed, Japan reopened its ports beginning in 1859. As the country entered the turbulent 1860s, Yokohama rapidly emerged as the primary gateway for trade and interaction with the West, becoming the focal point of Japan’s transformation into a modern nation.

Today, Real Gaijin sat down with Simon Partner, a professor of history at Duke University, to discuss life in 1860s Yokohama. As a new treaty port, Japan’s encounter with the outside world became part of daily life there. Drawing on The Merchant’s Tale, Professor Partner introduced us to the lives of visiting foreigners and some of the Japanese people who encountered them for the first time. Professor Partner has written extensively about one particular farmer-turned-merchant named Shinohara Chūemon, who arrived in Yokohama in 1859. Over the next fourteen years, Shinohara witnessed extraordinary upheaval, including foreign trade, gunboat diplomacy, civil war, the collapse of the Tokugawa order, and the birth of Meiji Japan. Through Chūemon’s eyes, we explored high politics, global markets, and the lived realities of food, clothing, medicine, hygiene, opportunity, anxiety, and cultural exchange for Japanese people and foreigners in one of the most consequential cities in modern Japan.

More about Professor Partner

Simon Partner is professor of history, with particularly deep knowledge in the fields of Asian Studies and East Asian History, at Duke University.

Besides The Merchant’s Tale, Professor Partner is the author of several books including Assembled in Japan: Electrical Goods and the Making of the Japanese Consumer (1999); Toshié: A Story of Village Life in Twentieth-Century Japan (2004); The Mayor of Aihara: A Japanese Villager and His Community, 1865–1925 (2009); and most recently Koume’s World (2023), which was the winner of the 2026 Modern Japan History Association Book Prize.

On the agenda

We discussed Professor Partner’s personal connection to Japan — which includes a 40+ year marriage partner whom he originally met in Alabama (of all places) — before exploring the following:

* Why Yokohama mattered: How a small fishing village became Japan’s gateway to the West and the epicenter of the country’s modernization.

* Everyday life in a changing city: What life was like for both Japanese residents and foreign visitors, from commerce and housing to food, clothing, medicine, and hygiene.

* Shinohara Chūemon’s story: How one farmer-turned-merchant witnessed foreign trade, political upheaval, and the transition from Tokugawa to Meiji Japan.

* Lessons for today: What Yokohama’s first wave of globalization can teach us about cross-cultural exchange, immigration, and international business in the 21st century.

Key Takeaways

Today’s discussion flew by. We covered a variety of subjects and took questions from active participants who used the chat functionality (many thanks). It is difficult to select only three key takeaways, but these were mine:

* Yokohama’s opening transformed Japan before the Meiji Restoration: The conversation emphasizes that Japan’s economic and social transformation did not begin with the Meiji government alone. Rather, the opening of Yokohama in 1859 unleashed an unprecedented wave of largely unrestricted international trade, which rapidly reshaped markets, created new industries, accelerated inflation, and produced winners and losers across Japanese society. Professor Partner argues that this period of commercial disruption laid much of the foundation for Japan’s later modernization. This challenges the conventional narrative that places the Meiji Restoration at the center of the country’s transformation.

* Ordinary people provide the most revealing perspective on history: Rather than focusing exclusively on political leaders or famous historical figures, Professor Partner explains that his research examines how major historical events were experienced by everyday people. Through the story of farmer-turned-merchant Shinohara Chūemon, we learn how individuals navigated uncertainty, embraced entrepreneurial risk, adapted to global economic forces, and experienced spectacular success and devastating failure. This micro-historical approach illustrates that history is best understood through the experiences of those affected by large-scale political and economic change.

* Japan’s early globalization was deeply connected to world events: The interview highlights how local merchants in developing 1860s Yokohama were influenced by events occurring thousands of kilometers (miles) away. For example, the American Civil War unexpectedly created a lucrative export boom for Japanese cotton. Later, the Franco-Prussian War contributed to the collapse of European silk demand, ruining highly leveraged traders such as Shinohara Chūemon. These examples demonstrate that, by the 1860s, Japan was tightly integrated into the global economy, where international conflicts and market disruptions could dramatically alter the fortunes of businesses and communities.

Timeline

Substack does not yet have the functionality to allow you to use a link to jump to a specific section like YouTube’s “chapters.” Please refer to the times listed below to navigate through our hour-long conversation. Thank you for your understanding.

Links

* Professor Partner’s new Substack (open to collaborating with guest historians):

* Duke University: https://scholars.duke.edu/person/spartner

* Book cited during podcast -- The Merchant’s Tale: https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-merchants-tale/9780231182928/

* Most recent book – Koume’s World: https://cup.columbia.edu/book/koumes-world/9780231211857/

* Colleague’s book about the international tea trade during the 19th century - Green Tea with Milk and Sugar: When Japan Filled America’s Tea Cups by Robert Hellyer: https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/Green-Milk-Sugar-Filled-America/dp/0231199104

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