What is the setting in the novel, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet?

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is set in the late eighteenth-century and early nineteenth-century Japan. The novel involves the meeting of two dramatically different nations and cultures, which sets a perilous and momentous stage upon which the story is told. The setting works well for the plot, for the reader is able to see a market contrast between the two cultures, as well as between the characters, their values, morals, and modes of belief. Indeed, the very time of the setting -in 1799-1800 Japan- is momentous, for it is a door to the West for Japan, and a window to the East for the West.