Muslims in Japan

by DAN EVON

Kobe Mosque, Kobe, Japan was founded in 1935 PHOTO/Wikipedia

Contrary to popular meme, Japan has not been able to “keep Islam at bay” by enforcing strict laws on Muslims.

Claim: Japan has been able to keep Islam at bay by enforcing strict laws on Muslims.

Example: [Collected via email, November 2015]

Origins: The above-displayed meme purportedly states several factors which have allowed Japan to “keep Islam at bay,” but the majority of these claims are either false or misleading.

For instance, the claim that Japan is the only nation that does not give citizenship to Muslims is false. According to Becoming Legally Japanese, a web site dedicated to immigration issues in Japan, the application form for Japanese citizenship does not require applicants to identify their religion:

There is no place anywhere on the written application where one specifies their religion or creed. Nor have I read anywhere about anyone being asked about their religious beliefs in the verbal interviews.

Because there is no place on the written online application for one’s religion, the Ministry of Justice can’t publish statistics showing the religions (or races) of naturalization candidates; they can only publish sex and former nationality statistics.

The claim that in Japan permanent residency is not given to Muslims is also false. The Guidelines for Permission for Permanent Residence published by the Immigration Bureau of Japan make no mention of religion. In fact, according to an article published by the Asian Quarterly, the Japanese government does not inquire about religion:

The Japanese government does not keep any statistics on the number of Muslims in Japan. Neither foreign residents nor ethnic Japanese are ever asked about their religion by official government agencies. While it is conceivable that this policy may change in the future due to official concerns about international terrorism, there has yet to be any public indication of such an effort. Introducing such a policy might lead to objections by the Japanese public that the government has no business inquiring into matters of religion, which is regarded by most Japanese as a strictly personal affair that should exist outside of the public sphere.

While it’s true that the International University of Japan does not teach Arabic or Islamic languages (according to the university’s web site, only English and Japanese language courses are offered), the country has not banned the teaching of Islamic languages. The Arabic Islamic Institute in Tokyo, for instance, offers an Arabic-Japanese translation course.

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