1.Objectives: Identifying Muslim Groups

Japanese people have a history of interaction with Muslim countries that goes back to ancient times. In 20^th century Japan, the relationship with Islamic countries was as suppliers of oil in Middle-Eastern countries. However, especially since the 1990s, Japan has experienced an increase in the number of immigrants from Islamic countries, and also in the number of Japanese converting to Islam. A Pakistani Muslim once said to me that in the relatively few cases of occupation or colonialization of Muslim countries by Japan, the relationships between Japan and the Islamic countries have tended to be good, even though the coexistence of various ethnic groups including Muslims is not an easy challenge for Japanese people in general.

 Many intellectuals explain the need for tolerance towards different people, from the viewpoint of human rights, international economics, etc. Some describe the mutual-support and disciplined nature of Islamic teaching, while others show examples of the resemblances between Islam and the Japanese civil religion, or the historical respect of the Japanese for the Middle-Eastern civilization. Those intellectuals develop a mutually understanding policy, focusing on their thoughts. Theoretically, it is certainly true; however, I feel that it does not go far enough.

I propose a policy to classify Muslims in Japan into six groups, rather than seeing them as a monolithic Islam community, and I observe the challenges of each group and develop different strategies for mutual understanding. First, I propose to describe the huge number of Muslim residents in Japan, and explain the characteristics of the six different groups of Muslims currently in Japan. Second, a history of Islamic representation in Japan and Muslims in Japan is briefly shown to demonstrate what kind of “respect” the Japanese people have towards Middle-Eastern civilizations. Third, the change in the role of the key symbolic organization, the Islamic Center Japan, is symptomatic of the changing relationship between the Japanese and Muslim people. Fourth, I must also show how the lack of knowledge and half-truths can lead to misunderstandings about Islam, resulting from a flood of stereotypical (if not biased) media coverage and limited teaching hours in the current school curriculum. To conclude, I will present some strategies to enhance mutual understanding between various Japanese people and various Muslim groups, by identifying their particular interests.

2.Number of Immigrant or Resident Muslims

At the end of 2005, about 200,000 foreigners from the countries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) were staying or living in Japan (Immigration Control 2006, The Ministry of Justice). The major ethnic groups are Malaysian, Indonesian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Turk. There is a big contrast between the 2005 figure and that for the end of 2000: 56,000. We can see an incredible increase in the influx of people from Muslim countries. Not all of them are immigrants—some are on short-term visits or trainees supported by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), an organization supported by the Japanese government. As seen above, we can assume that a huge number of practicing Muslims are now living in Japan. In addition, later in the discussion, I will also enumerate Japanese Muslim converts.

Muslims make great efforts to develop their life in Japan. For instance, about 5,000 Pakistani Muslims live in Japan and carry on their business, trading various commodities such as second-hand cars, halal foods, etc. In 2006, the first Pakistan Chamber of Commerce celebrated its registration and opening with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Their efforts to establish themselves in Japan have enabled more than 40 mosques or musalla (places for prayer) to be built in Japan.

There are no accurate statistics to establish exactly how many Muslims are there in Japan. We can only assume this by multiplying the number of people from the countries of the OIC staying or living in Japan by the percentage of Muslims in their own countries. For example, in Indonesia, Muslims make up more than 90% of the population. Thus, we can assume that more than 90% of Indonesians in Japan are Muslims  The major ethnic groups that I have referred to (Malaysian, Indonesian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Turk) have a high percentage of Muslim members, so we can count most of them in Japan as Muslim.

Based on the home country category in The Statistics of Foreigners Resident in Japan 2000, the number of Muslims living in Japan can be estimated. Sachiko Sakurai (2003) roughly estimated the number of foreigner Muslims as 64,000. However, we should not overlook the increase in the number of converted Japanese Muslims (or Muslims) through international marriages due to the increased likelihood of encounters between Japanese and foreign Muslims.

For instance, consider the increase in the number of international marriages between Japanese and Indonesians. Kokusei Chosa Houkoku 2000 (The Report of the National Census) reveals that 1,630 Indonesians married Japanese in 2000. We can therefore estimate that more than 1,500 Japanese must have converted to Islam in 2000 just through marrying Indonesians. In 2005, 2,937 Indonesians married Japanese. It is therefore natural to estimate a doubling of the number of Muslims in Japan.

 Table 1

Table 1 shows the number of OIC member nations that had more than 5,000 residents in Japan at the end of 2005. Because only 30% of the Malaysian population is Muslim, we can estimate 112,000 Malaysian Muslims to be staying in Japan.

As I have mentioned, I am not including the number of Japanese Muslims who have converted not through international marriage but of their own will. Now, of course, there are second and third generations of Japanese Muslims—in total these are estimated to be between 7,000 and 10,000. Beyond this uncertainty, we can expect to have more Muslims staying or resident in Japan than the Japanese have ever experienced before.

  3.More Knowledge, More Misunderstanding?

Japanese people now experience various encounters with Muslims. In workplaces, public transit, shopping centers, and in their neighborhood, the general Japanese public who has little knowledge about the teachings of Islam will be mixing with Muslim people. In addition, Muslims do not know much about the customs inherent in life within the Japanese community. Thus, people need to develop a mutual understanding. Scholars of Islamic Studies make every effort to enlighten people about Muslims. However, the Japanese general public still persists in accepting biased information regarding Islam. Why?

Takaaki Matsumoto, a high-school teacher of World History, has conducted a study on the misunderstandings regarding Islam among Japanese high-school students. From a questionnaire sent out to 23 schools (1,670 students), he learned of interesting interrelationships between knowledge about Islam and negative impressions of Islam. A student with only a little knowledge about Islam does not have much of a negative impression. On the other hand, the learned student who has more informed knowledge seems to have a tendency to hold a negative image of Islam, such as aggressive, unreliable, prone to cheating and greed, dangerous or even undeveloped, etc. Although he has tried to devote more time to a more positive explanation and to maintaining a balanced impression, in the limited hours assigned to Islamic culture in the world history curriculum, he has not been able to do much to enhance its image for the class. Students also claim they need to learn about the particular topics pragmatically chosen for the college entrance examinations, and teachers of world history must experience these dilemmas. Furthermore, not all students will be experts in world history or Islamic Studies, and therefore, teachers must be careful to choose topics that best fit the students’ interests and situations.

In addition, it is not good for the students to supply them with only standardized information. The information on Islam should be selected and arranged so that it is relevant to the interests and situations of the students. For instance, we should imagine where and how the students are likely to encounter Muslims. We should also develop the students’ understanding of diversity among Muslims. It is not rational to see the Muslim community as purely monolithic; even Muslims themselves say that they share an Islamic belief and practice. They all have different nationalities, and different cultural, economic, and educational backgrounds. Our efforts towards enlightenment should be colorfully oriented towards the variety of people.

In the next section, I describe the diversity between the six groups of Muslim people. The reason for this categorizing becomes more understandable when we learn about the history of Islam in Japan.

4.History of Islam in Japan

Japan has a long history of interrelationships with Muslim countries. Shosoin Treasury in Nara, one of the oldest treasuries in Japan, is proud of its great collections of Persian art items such as glass goblets and pitchers. The Japanese people have developed a familiarity with these artifacts and a respect for Middle-Eastern civilizations. The oldest record of a Japanese encounter with the Middle East goes back to an article on July 16, 660, by a Persian who came to Japan. There is also another record of an encounter in China on January 30, 754, with the ambassador of “Tasï” (cf. tajir (merchant) or taj (crown)).

However, the modern history of Muslims in Japan originates with the establishment of the first three mosques—Nagoya in 1931, Kobe in 1935, and Tokyo in 1939. These facts show that there were enough Muslims living in these cities to manage these facilities. They generally developed a good relationship with the local Japanese people, Japanese entrepreneurs, politicians, and various intellectuals interested in the Asian continent. Before and during World War II, Japanese intelligence considered this relationship useful to collect information and develop connections with the Asian continent through Muslim networks, including former Prime Minister Senjuro Hayashi and the scholar Shumei Okawa. The first generation of Japanese converts included chivalrous people who had both the cosmopolitan and nationalistic desire to learn from the Islamic civilization and contribute toward Japan becoming a leading nation in the world.

After World War II, many Muslim students studied at Japanese universities. Dr. Sali M. Samalai, who was awarded the Doctor of Agriculture degree by the University of Tokyo, founded Muslim Student Association (est. 1961). Then International Islamic Center (est. 1966), later Islamic Center Japan, succeeded it (est. 1974). Because the year of the establishment of Islamic Center Japan was also the year of the “Oil Shock,” many Japanese wanted to learn more about Islam, as it is the religion of the Middle-Eastern countries. The mission of Islamic Center Japan was to support Japanese converts by producing Islamic events, translating books on Islam, and establishing a Muslim cemetery. The student members of the Center had excellent language skills—Japanese, Arabic, and their own mother tongue. As intellectuals, they adhered to a strong cosmopolitan will to work for mutual understanding and to develop friendship between Japanese society and the Islamic world. Therefore, the Center has a history to both facilitate mutual support for Muslims in Japan and offer publication and information on Islam for the Japanese. It was really the Center that bound Muslims in Japan together. In 1977, at the height of their activity, the Center collaborated with Chuo University in Japan and the World Muslim League in Mecca on a conference on Islamic Law.

The Islamic Center Japan still remains the center for Muslims in Japan. For example, it is their responsibility to identify the very beginning of the month of Ramadan by observing the moon. However, Muslims in Japan became centrifugal rather than centripetal and the Center is now facing financial difficulty. The majority of Muslims are not the elite who have higher educational experience and a degree in Japan, but immigrants or trainees of JICA from various countries. Some of them have achieved a higher educational qualification from a college or university in their mother country; some of them are very fluent in Japanese, whereas others are not.

In some cities around Tokyo, Muslims have developed communities of their own and feel no urgent need to consider a way to coexist with the Japanese. They do not have such an interest in a holistic vision as do the elite Muslim generation who have degrees from Japanese Universities.

5.Is the Islamic Center Japan No Longer Required?

Why are Muslims in Japan no longer centripetal? Why does the Center experience financial difficulty? One reason is the dissemination of Muslims all over Japan. They no longer need to ask the former Muslim network for religious foods or commodities. They now have local area networks or job networks.

One of the other reasons is the type of Muslims coming to Japan. At the time of the establishment of the Islamic Center, only the intellectual elite who had good abilities and a cosmopolitan outlook and who could bridge the two cultures were able to visit and stay in Japan. However, in the 1980s, Japanese society experienced historical economic prosperity and various Muslims came to live in Japan to exploit business opportunities. Although Islam emphasizes the concept of mutual support with one’s neighbors, a strong cosmopolitan elite consciousness might be beyond the imagination of the general Muslim population.

The cases of international marriage are impressive. Some Japanese converts are proud of their husbands who treat them and their parents better than Japanese men. However, other Japanese wives complain about their husbands’ reticence towards explaining the details of the various requirements of Islam as being much more complex than simply a brief confession of faith. Of course, Muslims are concerned about the need to explain Islam, so do they perhaps just neglect their responsibility? Or do their wives perhaps not listen well to their explanation?

In such cases, a mutual support group of Muslims will often be more effective than a political action, as they do not like their complaints to be discussed in public. However, they also experience some challenges, such as the education of their children, which needs to be discussed openly in the near future. On one side, international schools are the most acceptable to them but, on the other, a halal lunch for a Muslim child in the uniformed school lunch program might cause turmoil among the children in a public school. We must therefore divide Muslims into separate groups and not deal with them monolithically in a political sense, in order to adopt specialized policies for the various challenges that are crucial to develop mutual understanding.

In the next section, I will show you the characteristics of these separate groups.

6.Six Groups of Muslims in Japan

Now it is time to divide Muslims in Japan into six groups. The characteristics of each of these six groups are as follows:

The first group consists of trainees staying for a short term (three months). The second group consists of people who reside in Japan and do unskilled work. Some of these have higher educational qualifications or degrees from colleges or universities in their home country. The third consists of business people such as traders. They export second-hand cars and import halal foods or commodities from Islamic countries. Often they speak fluent Japanese, become familiar with Japanese customs, marry Japanese (women), or even become naturalized Japanese citizens. The fourth group is characterized by their professional knowledge, qualifications, and higher degrees in Japanese or Western universities. They are the elite Muslims or students in Japan. The fifth group is made up of Japanese who have converted to Islam, personally, by invitation or by international marriage. The missionary group is the sixth. Tablighi Jamaat from Pakistan is one of the international missionary groups that are active in Japan. They have a foothold in some Mosques in urban areas, for example, around Tokyo.

Of course, there are some exceptions to these divisions. I can show examples of these exceptions from among my interviewees. A Turkish businessman who had worked for a well-known brokerage firm began his own company to support the Japanese who were looking for new jobs in some foreign affiliated firm, giving advice to Japanese workers in writing. His point of contact with Japanese society is not the Islam identity or community but his professional ability both in the Japanese language and in business. He does not appear to be that interested in coexistence with the general Japanese public or Muslims living in Japan because he can pursue his interests through his own channels without involving his religion.

Needless to say, these six groups should be treated differently in relation to their coexistence with Japanese people. Let me show some examples with regard to the different attitudes to noise. Some Muslims are very conscious of Japanese custom and rules. Muslim leaders are (and should be) very careful (and nervous) about choosing the conditions surrounding the locations of their mosques. They make every effort of not causing any inconvenience to their neighbors. They close the windows of the mosque when they start adhân or prayer. Some mosques around Tokyo are located along main roads or the railroad, because people around the places are not so concerned about noise. However, in contrast to such efforts of not making people upset due to noise, some Muslims are blamed for parking illegally in the neighborhood of a mosque. Muslim leaders often warn that “it is against the teaching of Islam to park illegally; even if it is to attend prayers.”

7.Conclusive Remarks

Most people who have studied the teachings of Islam or who have Muslim friends seriously believe Islam to be a peacemaking religion. However, emphasizing “peaceful Islam” is not the best way to develop coexistence between diverse people. Each problem requires a different solution, and must at least be oriented to particular groups of Muslims and Japanese.

For Japanese intellectuals, unbiased information with audio-visual materials will be helpful. Diversity in Islam should be presented for them. Stereotypical photos such as many Muslims prostrating themselves together simultaneously in a mosque may sometimes be misleading. The opportunity to frankly discuss questions about Islam creates trust among the people. Because Islam disseminates beyond Islamic countries, I feel that Muslims need to negotiate some solution to the ideological conflict between Islam and Western customs and ideas. For example, Islam does not have a systematic way to renounce one’s membership as Muslim. It is one of the points against Western ideas of affiliating or renouncing to a religion.

Some cases of negotiation regarding halal food are suggestive. One way is to acquaint classmates and their parents with the idea of halal food. One teacher tried to explain about special need of a mulima student for the halal lunch.  He is afraid that it might cause some opposition among the students.  However, another student also explained her need of special lunch for her allergy.  As a result, the teacher successfully made these two cases of special lunch accepted in his class. Another teacher provided the opportunity for parents to attend an Indonesian cuisine class taught by Muslim parents. This encourages children to accept the diversity of food easily. Because these cases are not in any way confrontational, some might criticize that they are means of evading the issues. However, at least they offer Muslim children some time to re-learn and re-consider the meaning of halal foods.

For Japanese converts and their families, establishing good friendships with practical support is the best way to understand what it is to be a Muslim. Special care should be paid to Japanese women converts through international marriage before their marriage by members of both families and by other Japanese Muslims. The formation of mutual support groups is a popular solution. Such groups should be made available not only in metropolitan areas but also in small towns.

For the general Japanese public, accumulating experiences in order to discuss community topics with Muslim residents encourages efforts towards coexistence. Concerns about noise, parking manners, and business customs are such experiences.

There is a view that Japanese society is not ready to welcome Muslims. A Pakistani makes the effort to have a good relationship with their neighbor. However, sometimes the police may become suspicious and stop and investigate them. An Iraqi who has a Master’s degree in sociology from an Iraqi university seeks the means to study in Japan, but his ability in Japanese is limited and his degree from Iraq is of no use in Japan. The Japanese government needs to develop some advocacy policy for such people, not only Muslims but also other non-Western foreigners.

As we have seen, there are various tasks to be considered to improve mutual understanding between Japanese and Muslims. In particular, their division into six groups with specialized policies assigned to each group is crucial to encourage friendship and mutual appreciation effectively.

Source : http://www.ceredicrec.rnrt.tn/attachments/068_Kasai-identifying muslim in Japan.doc

Kenta KASAI,
Center for Information on Religion
ktkasai@nifty.com