Nanban trade
Japan had had numerous contacts with the West during the Nanban trade period in the second half of the 16th and the early 17th century. During that period, the first contacts between the French and the Japanese occurred when the samurai Hasekura Tsunenaga landed in the southern French city of Saint-Tropez in 1615. François Caron, son of French Huguenot refugees to the Netherlands, who entered the Dutch East India Company, and became the first person of French origin to set foot in Japan in 1619. He stayed in Japan for 20 years, where he became a Director for the company.