Nagasaki was the only port that had been open to international trading since the Edo period, and as such the settlement had flourished due to the large number of foreigners who had taken up unofficial residence there; beginning in the Meiji period, however, it saw comparatively little development, and indeed prospered more as a sort of health resort for foreigners living in Shanghai and other concessions in China rather than as a settlement in its own right.
江戸時代から日本唯一の対外貿易港であった長崎の居留地には、当初、多数の外国人が押しかけて繁栄したが、明治になると長崎居留地はそれほど発達せず、むしろ上海市を中心とする中国租界在住の欧米人の保養地として賑わうようになった。