In 1638, the harsh Sakoku policy was ordered by the Tokugawa shogunate; and by 1641, the VOC Opperhoofden in Japan had to transfer all of its mercantile operations to the small man-made island of Dejima (a small fan-shaped artificial island in the bay of Nagasaki), an island had been built for the Spaniards, but they had been forced to abandon it and all contacts with Japan.
VOC Opperhoofden in Japan were the chief traders of the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC in old-spelling Dutch, literally "United East Indian Company") in Japan during the period of the Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the Edo period. In 1638, the harsh Sakoku ("closed door" policy) was ordered by the Tokugawa shogunate; and by 1641, the VOC had to transfer all of its mercantile operations to the small man-made island of Dejima in Nagasaki harbor. Dejima was a small fan-shaped artificial island in the bay of Nagasaki covering an area of 120 m  75 m (390 ft  250 ft) or 9,000 m (2.2 acres), and is listed in old Western documents Latinised as Deshima, Decima, Decuma, Desjima, Dezima, Disma, or Disima. Dejima (Japanese: , "exit island") was a Portuguese and subsequently Dutch trading post at Nagasaki, Japan from 1634 to 1854. Dejima was built in 1634 to house Portuguese traders and separate them from Japanese society by digging a canal through a small peninsula. However, in response to the uprising of the predominantly Christian population in the Shimabara-Amakusa region, the Tokugawa government decided to expel the Portuguese in 1639. 
