Netherlands to close prisons for lack of criminals

[Art_from_Ark]

21. "Domestic" motives included fending off foreign religious zealots

Having visited the monument to the 26 Martyrs in Nagasaki, I got the impression from locals that religious zealotry on the part of Spaniards and Portuguese played an important role in the expulsion of all Europeans from the main islands, while the Dutch, who didn't proselytize, were given trading privileges on a couple of islands off the coast of Kyushu. Of course, it was complicated, and Japan certainly did not want to become part of either the Spanish or Portuguese empires.

From the Wiki article about the 26 martyrs:

"The shogunate and imperial government at first supported the Catholic mission and the missionaries, thinking that they would reduce the power of the Buddhist monks, and help trade with Spain and Portugal. However, the Shogunate was also wary of colonialism, seeing that in the Philippines the Spanish had taken power after converting the population. The government increasingly saw Catholicism as a threat, and started persecuting Christians. Christianity was banned and those Japanese who refused to abandon their faith were killed."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-six_Martyrs_of_Japan