Real historical question: did pirates and ninjas exist in same time period?

Question

Is there any good historical reason why a european pirate or group of pirates would have come in contact with a ninja or did they exist in different time periods?

Answer 1

Pirates have existed in every time period, including right now.

Answer 2

Pirates and ninjas existed during the same time period but the odds of your typical European pirate running across Japanese sailing ships were pretty slim. Up until the middle 19th century Japanese society shunned contact with the outside world.

Ninjas have been around since the 14th century and served as spies, enforcers and assassins for various war lords and  the emperor himself. They no doubt continued to exist as an effective force well into the 19th century.

From what I gathered there were plenty of Chinese, Mongolian and Japanese coastal type raiders but they rarely ventured out of sight of their homelands.  

Western sea faring nations like Portugal, Spain, France and England actively explored the world's open oceans in search of trade routes and often fought over them, the xenophobic Japanese kept to themselves.