Effect of Matthew Perry’s Visit to Japan • American Commodore Matthew Perry is known for having played a vital role in Japan's decision to reopen itself to foreign trade, but how so? What exactly did he do that was so important? To answer that question, we need to look at Japan's past. Japan was closed off to most of the world from the late 1600s to the mid 1800s, meaning that Japan had hardly any trading or interactions with outside countries for nearly 200 years. This made American officials discontent, so they set out to try and reopen trade between themselves and Japan. And thus, Perry was selected to act as a United States representative in July of 1853 to ask about trade. Although Japanese officials had to be threatened with the possibility