Yes indeed, European books and learning became quite prominent in Japan that it has its own body of knowledge called Rangaku.

Following Tokugawa Japan's implementation of their isolationist policies, Dutch traders were only allowed a yearly visit in the port of Nagasaki. To add to this strict control of the flow of outside goods into Japan, the government imposed a list of forbidden topics, kinsho mokuroku. The Shimabara Rebellion in 1637/38 caused quite a scare to the government that it decided on the aforementioned isolationism, as well as the complete dismissal of the Portuguese and their Catholic ideals, a supposed major cause to the rebellion. The list of prohibited books understandably included Christian texts. (In Qing China, the Yongzheng Emperor's banning of Jesuits and Christian activity mirrors this.) However, what was readily accepted by the Bakufu were natural science and medical books.

Rangaku took off in the latter half of the 18th century, and Dutch import of books into Japan created a notable market. Initially, translation was an issue, and the high price of the books also meant they were mostly novelty possessions for merchants and elites. Books were sometimes given to officials as gifts, a kind of tribute the Dutch traders had to provide for their privilege of access in Nagasaki. Those that were sold by the Dutch were usually through private transactions of auctions. Many of the books given to the Japanese were not officially listed on the transaction registries, due to murky legal reasons and as many were indeed gifts. Furthermore, a sort of smuggling market developed, as it wasn't clear how sanctioned western books were by the government. Social ties were also important, if scholars wished to receive access to books they needed to develop relations with the Dutch envoys and traders. Though books were extremely expensive scholars were willing to go to great and creative lengths to obtain the funds, such as relationships with merchants and Daiymo patrons, or selling off various household possessions. Of course, social networks formed between scholars themselves, some of whom had developed quite a library and collection of foreign books. Merchant libraries existed in Osaka, and more academic libraries were located in Edo and Kyoto.

---

I don't have as much time to fully develop a proper answer as I'd like, I apologize if this does not meet the sub standards. I have class right now, afterwards I may add more.

---

sources:

Network of Knowledge: Western Science and the Tokugawa Information Revolution, Chapter Six The Network in Action: Book Circulation and Publication (Terrence Jackson, 2016)

Modern Asian Studies Vol. 18, No. 4, Special Issue: Edo Culture and Its Modern Legacy, pp. 541-553 Rangaku and Westernization (Marius B. Jansen, 1984)

If you don't mind, huianxin, I am going to add to your answer. I hope to expand on a few points that you raised.

The period of the question finds Tokugawa Japan pursuing a foreign policy which would be later termed as 'sakoku'. To be extremely brief, this meant that foreign affairs and trade was strictly managed and monopolised by the Tokugawa shogunate. During the period (roughly) 1638 – 1854, only the Dutch were permitted to trade with Japan. This relationship did not include any diplomatic ties. It was through this connection that information of the wider world, Europe in the case of the Dutch, came to Japan.

Rangaku (literally: Dutch-learning)

In the early to mid Edo period, Japanese translators achieved an ability in Dutch under an apprenticeship programme and through day-to-day affairs while working with the Dutch. Jirō Numata notes that this level of Dutch was mostly conversational and was not focused on reading. Numata mentions that the Dutch were not impressed with the level of Dutch of their interperters and most communication in the early period was carried out through Portuguese! Some Dutch officials also learned Japanese, to varying levels, which also eased communications somewhat. By the late 1700s, the some of Japanese interpreters' ability in Dutch was to the level of being able to translate Dutch books into Japanese. Yoshio Kyougyuu (1724-1800) and Motoki Ryouei (1735-1794) were two such scholars.

The first Dutch-Japanese dictionary completed by Inamura Sanpaku at the end of the 1700s/very early (my sources do not mention a date), however only 30 copies were printed. An abbreviated version, titled 'Yakken' by Fujibayashi Fuzan was published in 1810. According to Numata, this was one of the most common dictionaries used by Japanese 'Dutch scholars'. During the Napoleonic wars, the Netherlands had fallen under the dominance of the French and Dutch colonies were seized by the British. With the sole exception of Dejima, Nagasaki. The head of the trading post ('factory'), Hendrik Doeff (from 1800 to 1818), with time on his hands as the little outpost was effectively isolated from the rest of the world, began to develop another dictionary based on a Dutch-French dictionary. Doeff himself would not finish the work, which was completed under successive staff at the Dejima factory. Numata states that this dictionary was first published between 1855 & 1858, very near the end of rangaku study. Huibert Paul instead says that this dictionary ('Doeff-Halma') was widely used in the first half of the 1800s. Regardless, there was a larger number of dictionaries and grammar studies available for the 'Dutch scholar' in the late Tokugawa period (1800-53), particularly during the first two decades of the 1800s. A translation division was established by the Tokugawa government to translate imported works into Japanese. This would increase the import of technology and techniques, some of which would be directly applied to government work (cartography & surveying). The desire to learn from foreign sources reached a new pitch after the political crisis caused by Commodore Perry's arrival in 1853 and the signing of the treaty of Kanagawa the following year. In 1856, the Tokugawa government established a new centre for rangaku study, the Bansho Shirabesho (lit: the Office for the Study of Western Books). It is from the library of the Bansho Shirabesho that we can draw some conclusions on what books were available, read and translated.

Import of Dutch books

The mid to late 1700s saw a the beginning of interest in importing Dutch books for their contents (as opposed to being curiosities). In comparison to 'western' books translated into Chinese, Dutch books did not suffer as many restrictions. Religious texts, those discussing or related to Christianity, were forbidden. Marius B. Jansen describes a number of libraries of Dutch books owned by private individuals or domains. Books were also included in the annual gifts which were offered to the Shogunate. After 1856 the Bansho Shirabesho would import a large amount of books (7,648 in 1860, according to Jansen. Granted these may not have been all in Dutch). By 1859 the Bansho Shirabesho had a total of 600 volumes in its library. If we consider that this was one of the largest libraries of its kind in Japan at the time, this presents a good data set of what kind of books were the Japanese reading.

Books, what genres?

According to Jansen, who's article (see sources) is on the Bansho Shirabesho's library, there are 16 categories of books in the library (dated to 1862):

1. Dictionaries: Languages

2. Dictionaries: Specialised; technology, construction

3. Grammar & Language texts

4. Science : Natural science

5. Chemistry

6. Mathematics: Arithmetic

7. Astronomy

8. Geography

9. Histories & biographies

10. Navigation

11. Government

12. Military studies

13. Construction

14. Machinery

15. Medical studies

16. Miscellaneous

So, as we can see from the library's contents, not much, if any, literary works were present in the Bansho Shirabesho. Instead, more practical ('hard science', if you will) knowledge was sought out by the institution's Dutch scholars. Considering the wider circumstances of the founding of the Bansho Shirabesho, this is not a surprise. Continuing with Jansen, he quotes a letter from Nishi Amane, a member of a Tokugawa-led mission abroad in the early 1860s. In this letter, Nishi states that European philosophy, for him represented by Descartes, Locke, Hegel, Kant, etc, is virtually unknown in Japan.

Looking though another source, 'Notes on the Japanese Mission...', there are extracts of the lists (items) requested by the Japanese for import. This continues with the conclusion above, however with some interesting exceptions. For the sake of space (& sanity) , I will list only the book types here.

1814 : Astronomy (2), Medicine (2), Naval Architecture (1), Navigation / Cartography (1), History/Geography (1)

1819 : Medicine (1), Manufacturing (1), Science - Physics (1)

1820 : Manufacturing (2)

1834 : Science - Physics (1), Manufacturing (1), Chemistry (13 volumes), Military (1), History/Geography (1)

1836 : Chemistry (1), Military/Shooting (1), Military/Artillery (1), Military/Chemistry (1), Fireworks (1), Natural resources (1)

1837 : (This year is more detailed) Chemistry (1), Botany (2), Geography (1), Geometry (1), Algebra (1) , Physics? (book title is 'the Universe'...) (1), Manual (1), Physics (1), Gardening (1), Water levels (1), Architecture (3), Reproductions (pictures) (2), Naval Architecture (1), Seamanship (1), Medicine (2), Explanatory Dictionaries (2), Dictionary of the Arts (2), Dictionary (Languages?) (128), General Dictionary (Languages?) (40), Medicine & Surgery (19), Fortifications (1)

1838 : Fireworks (1), Physics (1), Latin dictionary (1)

1841 : Medicine (1), Agriculture (1)

1847 : Manufacturing (1), Whaling (1)

1851 : Art (1), Botany (1), Engineering (1), Medicine (2), Military (1), Manufacturing (1)

(See footnote: 2) )

Officially speaking, from the Tokugawa Bakufu's libraries and importation records discussed above, there is little chance, if any, of a rangaku scholar working for the shogunate reading European literature during the Edo period. However, there is another way for those with Dutch abilities, and enough wealth, to get 'western' books.