The Japanese Samurai were also hired as mercenaries to serve as soldiers in the armies of other countries like Thailand.
Shoguns, such as Yamada Nagamasa, served as the leader of a battalion of 1,000 Japanese Samurai who were hired by King Songtham of Thailand to aid in the invasion of the Kingdom of Lan Na to the North which the King declared war on because it refused to pay the tribute that he demanded.
Yamada and his soldiers arrived in Thailand in 1612 and were immediately deployed on the battlefield along with Portuguese mercenaries.
Yamada was immediately given the nobility rank of Khun as soon as he and his soldiers set up a military base in the country.
Because of the superior numbers that the Thai army possessed, including the Japanese and Portuguese soldiers, and because of the use of guns, cannons, and explosives against the numerically and technologically inferior soldiers of Lan Na, the Lan Na Kingdom was successfully conquered in 1630 and Yamada Nagamasa was promoted to Ok-ya Senaphimuk and made the governor of the region of Nakhon Si Thammarat as a reward for his service.
Below is an image of Yamada Nagamasa and his battalion in Thai uniform:
Below is an image of Yamada Nagamasa's battleship which was armed with 18 cannons:
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamada_Nagamasa
The Japanese also engaged heavily in maritime trade.
Suminokura Ryōi was a famous Japanese merchant who was granted a formal trade license, a shuinjo, from Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and managed overseas trading operations in Vietnam.
After Hideyoshi's death in 1598, Ryōi became a trusted advisor and supplier to Tokugawa Ieyasu, who became shōgun in 1603, and continued his overseas operations, with a shuinjō granted by Ieyasu.
Between 1605 and 1611, he also had canals constructed in the Tenryū, Takase, Fujigawa, and Hozu rivers to make the rivers of Kyoto more navigable and to extend their reach, so as to better ship goods to, from, and within the city. In exchange for his efforts, the Suminokura business was granted extended shipping rights within the city.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suminokura_Ry%C5%8Di
The Japanese also had pirates called Wokou that used fleets of cannon armed battleships to raid Japan, Korea, China, and even the Philippines where the pirates conquered a region called Aparri in the 1500s.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wokou