Edict to expel foreign ships

The Edict to Repel Foreign Vessels ( jap. 異国船打払令 , ikokusen uchiharairei ) was in 1825 by Tokugawa - shogunate enacted with the requirement that all foreign ships should be driven out of Japanese waters.

Japan was closed to foreign countries by the Sakoku policy from the second half of the 17th century, with a few exceptions. The shogunate regularly obtained books from Holland through Dejima and was well informed about the growing influence of the European colonial powers as well as Russia and the United States. This law was passed as a preventive measure.

The law was used, among other things, in the Morrison incident in 1837 when a merchant ship was shot at.

After the First Opium War , the law was repealed in 1842 .