<Li> In 1848, Captain James Glynn sailed to Nagasaki, leading at last to the first successful negotiation by an American with "Closed Country" Japan . James Glynn recommended to the United States Congress that negotiations to open Japan should be backed up by a demonstration of force, thus paving the way to Perry's expedition . </Li> <Li> In 1849, the Royal Navy's HMS Mariner entered Uraga Harbour to conduct a topographical survey . Onboard was the Japanese castaway Otokichi, who acted as a translator . To avoid problems with the Japanese authorities, he disguised himself as Chinese, and said that he had learned Japanese from his father, allegedly a businessman who had worked in relation with Nagasaki . </Li> <Li> In 1853, the Russian embassy of Yevfimy Putyatin arrived in Nagasaki (August 12, 1853). The embassy demonstrated a steam engine, which led to the first recorded attempts at manufacturing a steam engine in Japan, by Hisashige Tanaka in 1853 . </Li> <P> These largely unsuccessful attempts continued until, on July 8, 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry of the U.S. Navy with four warships: Mississippi, Plymouth, Saratoga, and Susquehanna steamed into the Bay of Edo (Tokyo) and displayed the threatening power of his ships' Paixhans guns . He demanded that Japan open to trade with the West . These ships became known as the kurofune, the Black Ships . </P>

Why did japan isolate itself under tokugawa rule