Why might European nations have been more eager to trade with China and Japan during exploration than China and Japan were willing to trade with Europe?

Answer 1

This occured for many reasons but the biggest was that the west had very little to trade with at the time and Japan preferred to keep its citizens under a tight leash rather than to make a little extra gold. and they eat lots of chiken and black people.

Answer 2

China's reaction was quite the same at first in 1793 they saw us as inferior to there splendour they saw themselves as the capital of the world. when illegal trade of opium from Britain started to drain China's economy they stopped the trade destroying 3 million pounds of unrefined opium this saw the first humiliation of china as the the opium war saw china massively defeated and the british then forced the treaty of Nanjing which saw the Chinese compensate the british 21 million and permanently cede HongKong island while allowing 5 more Chinese cities residency to traders out superior weapons saw china excepting trade to protect themselves which in turn depleted there initial reaction this leads onto japan when in 1852 the us made first contact an Asia trade was one of the benefits of the USA becoming an independent country. In the background, the Japanese saw a most encroaching growth of colonialism that is now called "the European peoples' expansion" in their history books. The reaction to the European peoples expansion was to isolate themselves and take the defensive not surprising considering China's defeat and also there way of life was so sacred to them which in my eyes was a much better way of life that we live and will ever.