Scenarios about 'sakoku'
The period of national isolation enforced by Japan's Tokugawa shogunate from 1633 to 1853, severely restricting foreign contact and trade. During sakoku, only limited interaction with China, Korea, and the Dutch was permitted through designated ports, while Japanese citizens were forbidden from leaving the country under penalty of death. This isolationist policy shaped Japan's unique cultural development and later influenced alternate history scenarios exploring different timelines for Japan's engagement with Western powers.
What If Japan Never Closed Itself to The Outside World?
Exploring the alternate timeline where Japan never implemented the sakoku policy of national isolation, potentially reshaping East Asian geopolitics, global trade networks, and technological development for centuries.
What If The Meiji Restoration Never Happened?
Exploring the alternate timeline where Japan remained under Tokugawa shogunate rule, never modernized through the Meiji Restoration, and how this would have dramatically altered the balance of power in Asia and world history.
What If The Samurai Era Never Ended?
Exploring the alternate timeline where Japan never abolished the samurai class during the Meiji Restoration, fundamentally altering the nation's modernization path and global position into the 21st century.
What If Japan Industrialized During the Edo Period?
Exploring how world history would have unfolded if Japan had undergone an industrial revolution during the Edo Period (1603-1868), centuries before its actual modernization in the Meiji era.