Stories and Projects: Islam in Japan

Until the late 19th century few if any records of Muslims coming into Japan to spread Islam as a religon exist. Islam became known to the Japanese people as a part of Western religious thought, as an element in the history of world cultures. The idea of Islam remained only a concept, until in 1890 Ottoman Turkey dispatched a naval vessel to Japan for the purpose of starting diplomatic relations between the two countries, introducing Muslims and Japanese people to each other. The first real Muslim communities started just after Bolshevik Revolution with the arrival of several hundred Turkman, Uzbek, Tadjik, Kirghiz, Kazakh and other Turko-Tatar Muslim refugees from central Asia and Russia. These Muslims were given asylum in Japan and formed small Muslim communities. A number of Japanese converted to Islam through this contact. Later several mosques were built, the Kobe Mosque built in 1935 and the Tokyo Mosque built in 1938. Very little influence of Japanese Muslims was felt in building these mosques It remains the nearly the same today although Muslims in Japan have risen in numbers still very few ethnic Japanese play any important roles in Islamic society in Japan. This essay is from a one day celebration of the Eid-ul-Adha (the Festival of Sacrifice) in a suburban Tokyo Public Park. and subsequent meeting at the car repair shop of one of the members.