Towards the end of the Edo period , with the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry following the Convention of Kanagawa and the end of Japan 's " closed-door " foreign policy , Jewish families again began to settle in Japan . The first recorded Jewish settlers arrived at Yokohama in 1861 . By 1895 , this community , which by then consisted of about 50 families , established the first synagogue in Meiji Japan . Part of this community would later move to Kobe after the great Kanto earthquake of 1923
great Kanto earthquake
1923 Great Kantō earthquake
History of the Jews in Japan