 The already troubled relations with Japanese merchants in Tayouan took a turn for the worse in 1628 when tensions boiled over . The merchants , who had been trading in Taiwan long before the Dutch colony was established , refused to pay Dutch tolls levied for conducting business in the area , which they saw as unfair . Nuyts exacted revenge on the same Hamada Yahei who he blamed for causing the failure of the Japanese embassy by impounding his ships and weapons until the tolls were paid . However , the Japanese were still not inclined to pay taxes , and the affair came to a head when Hamada took Nuyts hostage at knifepoint in his own office . Hamada 's demands were for the return of their ships and property , and for safe passage to return to Japan . These requests were granted by the Council of Formosa ( the ruling body of Dutch Formosa ) , and Nuyts ' son Laurens was taken back to Japan as one of six Dutch hostages . Laurens died in Omura prison on 29 December 1631 . During the Japanese era in Taiwan ( 1895 – 1945 ) , school history textbooks retold the hostage @-@ taking as the Nuyts Incident ( ヌィッチ事件 , noitsu jiken ) , portraying the Dutchman as a " typical arrogant western bully who slighted Japanese trading rights and trod on the rights of the native inhabitants " . 
