The internationalization of Japanese soy sauce actually began in the Edo era. Japan was then in its period of national isolation, but trade was permitted between Nagasaki and Holland as the only exception. The Dutch ships and Chinese ships started carrying Japanese soy sauce to the Chinese mainland, other parts of Southeast Asia, and as far as Holland. The soy sauce exported in that period was local soy sauce produced in Sakai in Osaka, in Kyoto, and in Kyushu. Other than shipping in barrels, it appears to have been sent in earthenware bottles called “konpura bottles”. After that, soy sauce was loved around the world as a versatile condiment. It’s popularity joined with the current boom in Japanese food to put soy sauce on meal tables around the world.