In 1635 the Tokugawa government (commonly referred to as the Tokugawa bakufu, meaning Japan’s military government at that time) issued a regulatory code known as the Closed Country Edict, or Sakokurei. This was one of several sets of laws issued during the 1630s that caused Japan to become largely closed off from the rest of the world for over two centuries. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, European exploration had begun to radically alter both the shape of the world and relations between peoples from different parts of the globe. Accordingly, the fact that Japan’s rulers took steps to halt those developments as they affected Japan was significant.