WHO WERE THE FIRST EUROPEANS IN JAPAN?
MIGRANT LABOUR Japanese warlods employed Portuguese 'pilots' (top left) to steer their own trading vessels
ALAMY
When a Chinese ship arrived at Tanegashima in 1543, the Portuguese travellers Francisco Zeimoto, Antonio da Mota and possibly Fernao Mendes Pinto were aboard, making them the first recorded Europeans in Japan.