In the late Qing dynasty, with the opening of Hong Kong as a free trade port in 1841 and the opening of ports such as Yokohama and Hakodate by the Japanese government in 1859, many Cantonese went to various ports in Japan to settle down and do business. These Cantonese merchants were engaged in the re-export trade between China and Japan centered on Hong Kong with the “three factors”, namely kinship, geography, and business relationship. The trade could be roughly divided into three stages: 1) the pioneering stage of trade (1859-1871), when Cantonese merchants were centered in Yokohama and trading with Japanese merchants as compradors for European and American firms, trading mainly silk, tea and marine products; 2) the developing stage (1872-1896), during which Cantonese merchants mostly set up shops in Hanshin, mainly engaged in marine products and matches, and built a sales network among Kobe (Osak), Hong Kong, Guangdong and Guangxi, and Southeast Asia, so that Hong Kong-Japan trade witnessed a rapid development; 3) the mature stage (after 1897), when the Cantonese merchants in Osaka moved to Kobe, and became the main force in Hong Kong-Japan trade. They began to trade cotton yarn and sundry goods. Therefore, Hong Kong-Japan trade flourished for several years, but then declined because of the financial chaos in Hong Kong, the weakening of the Cantonese merchants, and the competition of Japanese and German businessmen.