Editing Foreign relations of Japan (section)

=== Europe ===<!--[[File:BlairKoizumi.jpg|thumb|Former [[Prime Minister of Japan|Prime Minister]] [[Junichiro Koizumi]] with former [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] [[Tony Blair]]. The UK is one of Japan's key partners.]]-->
[[File:34th G8 summit member 20080707.jpg|thumb|[[34th G8 summit]] ([[Tōyako, Hokkaidō|Tōyako Town]], [[Hokkaidō]])]] 
{{See also|Japan–European Union relations}}
In what became known as the [[Tenshō embassy]], the first ambassadors from Japan to European powers reached [[Lisbon]], Portugal in August 1584. From Lisbon, the ambassadors left for the [[Holy See|Vatican]] in Rome, which was the main goal of their journey. The embassy returned to Japan in 1590, after which time the four nobleman ambassadors were ordained by [[Alessandro Valignano]] as the [[History of Roman Catholicism in Japan|first Japanese Jesuit fathers]].

A second embassy, headed by [[Hasekura Tsunenaga]] and sponsored by [[Date Masamune]], was also a diplomatic mission to the Vatican. The embassy left 28 October 1613 from [[Ishinomaki, Miyagi|Ishinomaki]], [[Miyagi Prefecture]], in the northern [[Tōhoku region]] of Japan, where Date was ''[[daimyō]]''. It traveled to Europe by way of [[New Spain]], arriving in [[Acapulco]] on 25 January 1614, [[Mexico City]] in March, [[Havana]] in July, and finally [[Seville]] on 23 October 1614. After a short stop-over in France, the embassy reached Rome in November 1615, where it was received by [[Pope Paul V]]. After return travel by way of [[New Spain]] and the [[Philippines]], the embassy reached the harbor of [[Nagasaki]] in August 1620. While the embassy was gone, Japan had undergone significant change, starting with the 1614 [[Siege of Osaka|Osaka Rebellion]], leading to a 1616 decree from the [[Tokugawa shogunate]] that all interaction with non-Chinese foreigners was confined to [[Hirado]] and [[Nagasaki]]. In fact, the only western country that was allowed to trade with Japan was the Dutch Republic. This was the beginning of "[[sakoku]]", where Japan was essentially closed to the western world until 1854.