Emigration from Japan was recorded as early as the 15th century to the Philippines and Borneo, and in the 16th and 17th centuries, thousands of traders from Japan also migrated to the Philippines and assimilated into the local population. However, migration of Japanese people did not become a mass phenomenon until the Meiji era, when Japanese people began to go to Canada, the United States, the Philippines, China, Brazil, and Peru. There was also significant emigration to the territories of the Empire of Japan during the colonial period, but most of these emigrants and settlers repatriated to Japan after the end of World War II in Asia.