Yeah, they're nearby. Portugal's one of the ones who spent a lot of time in Asia. Anyway, they joined the Japanese and Chinese pirates because they could sell the goods they raided off the coast for a lot more in Japan. Mostly silk and metal. China has tons of silk and it's pretty valuable, but at the time it was hard to move it around and sell it in the country. Since not many people could make it, it was worth a lot more overseas, like in Japan.