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Islam in Japan
Post–World War II[edit]
In the 1970s, another "Islamic Boom" occurred, this time due to the "Arab Boom" after the 1973 oil crisis. After realizing the importance of the Middle East and its massive oil reserves for the Japanese economy, the Japanese mass media have since been giving big publicity to the Muslim World in general and the Arab World in particular.[citation needed]
The Turks have been the biggest Muslim community in Japan until recently.
The Japanese invasion of China and South East Asian regions during the Second World War brought the Japanese in contact with Muslims. Those who converted to Islam through them returned to Japan and established in 1953, the first Japanese Muslim organisation, the Japan Muslim Association under the leadership of Sadiq Imaizumi. Its members, numbering 65 at the time of inauguration, increased twofold before he died in 1959.[citation needed]
The second president of the association was the Umar Mita, who was typical of the old generation, learning Islam in the territories occupied by the Japanese Empire. He was working for the Manshu Railway Company,[disambiguation needed] which virtually controlled the Japanese territory in the northeastern province of China at that time. Through his contacts with Chinese Muslims, he became a Muslim in Peking. When he returned to Japan after the war, he made the Hajj, the first Japanese in the post-war period to do so. He also made a Japanese translation of the Qur'an from a Muslim perspective for the first time. Aljazeera also made a documentary regarding Islam and Japan called "Road to Hajj – Japan".[13]
Though many Islamic organisations were established since the 1900s, each of them had only very few active members.[citation needed]
Muslim demographics[edit]
Islam was thought to have first come to Japan in the early 1900s when Muslim Tatars were escaping Russian expansionism.[14] The Muslim community in Japan has a history of over 100 years, although some sources disagree.[14][15][16] Historian Caeser E. Farah documented that in 1909 Abdul-Rashid Ibrahim was the first Muslim who successfully converted the first ethnic Japanese, and in 1935 Kobe Mosque—Japan's first Islamic building—was constructed.[14][17] Some sources state that in 1982 the Muslims numbered 30,000 (half were natives).[14] Some ethnic Japanese women during the economic boom of the 1980s converted when large numbers of immigrants from Asia came and mixed with the local population.[18] Most estimates of the Muslim population have been around 100,000 total.[14][19][20] Islam remains a minority religion in Japan, and there is no evidence as to whether Islam its numbers are increasing. Conversion is more prominent among young ethnic Japanese married women, as claimed by the The Modern Religion as early as the 1990s.[18] The true size of the Muslim population in Japan remains a matter of speculation. Some Muslim organizations and media reports have put the number of Muslims in Japan at up to 100,000. The most serious work on this question has been done by Japanese scholars such as Hiroshi Kojima of the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research and Keiko Sakurai of Waseda University. Their estimates suggest a Muslim population of around 70,000, of which perhaps 90% are resident foreigners and about 10% native Japanese.[15][19] In Japan the government does not take religion into account as part of the demographic concern under religious freedom. As Michael Penn states, "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".[19]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Japan
Why are the muslims not trying to go to Japan or South Korea?
In the 1970s, another "Islamic Boom" occurred, this time due to the "Arab Boom" after the 1973 oil crisis. After realizing the importance of the Middle East and its massive oil reserves for the Japanese economy, the Japanese mass media have since been giving big publicity to the Muslim World in general and the Arab World in particular.[citation needed]
The Turks have been the biggest Muslim community in Japan until recently.
The Japanese invasion of China and South East Asian regions during the Second World War brought the Japanese in contact with Muslims. Those who converted to Islam through them returned to Japan and established in 1953, the first Japanese Muslim organisation, the Japan Muslim Association under the leadership of Sadiq Imaizumi. Its members, numbering 65 at the time of inauguration, increased twofold before he died in 1959.[citation needed]
The second president of the association was the Umar Mita, who was typical of the old generation, learning Islam in the territories occupied by the Japanese Empire. He was working for the Manshu Railway Company,[disambiguation needed] which virtually controlled the Japanese territory in the northeastern province of China at that time. Through his contacts with Chinese Muslims, he became a Muslim in Peking. When he returned to Japan after the war, he made the Hajj, the first Japanese in the post-war period to do so. He also made a Japanese translation of the Qur'an from a Muslim perspective for the first time. Aljazeera also made a documentary regarding Islam and Japan called "Road to Hajj – Japan".[13]
Though many Islamic organisations were established since the 1900s, each of them had only very few active members.[citation needed]
Muslim demographics[edit]
Islam was thought to have first come to Japan in the early 1900s when Muslim Tatars were escaping Russian expansionism.[14] The Muslim community in Japan has a history of over 100 years, although some sources disagree.[14][15][16] Historian Caeser E. Farah documented that in 1909 Abdul-Rashid Ibrahim was the first Muslim who successfully converted the first ethnic Japanese, and in 1935 Kobe Mosque—Japan's first Islamic building—was constructed.[14][17] Some sources state that in 1982 the Muslims numbered 30,000 (half were natives).[14] Some ethnic Japanese women during the economic boom of the 1980s converted when large numbers of immigrants from Asia came and mixed with the local population.[18] Most estimates of the Muslim population have been around 100,000 total.[14][19][20] Islam remains a minority religion in Japan, and there is no evidence as to whether Islam its numbers are increasing. Conversion is more prominent among young ethnic Japanese married women, as claimed by the The Modern Religion as early as the 1990s.[18] The true size of the Muslim population in Japan remains a matter of speculation. Some Muslim organizations and media reports have put the number of Muslims in Japan at up to 100,000. The most serious work on this question has been done by Japanese scholars such as Hiroshi Kojima of the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research and Keiko Sakurai of Waseda University. Their estimates suggest a Muslim population of around 70,000, of which perhaps 90% are resident foreigners and about 10% native Japanese.[15][19] In Japan the government does not take religion into account as part of the demographic concern under religious freedom. As Michael Penn states, "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".[19]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Japan
Why are the muslims not trying to go to Japan or South Korea?
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/30/japan-says-it-must-look-after-its-own-before-allowing-syrian-refugees-in
"Japan must improve the living standards of its own people before it can consider accepting Syrian refugees, the prime minister, Shinzo Abe said, as he announced $1.6bn in new assistance for Syrians and Iraqis caught up in conflicts in the Middle East.
Abe’s consistent refusal to consider allowing even a modest number of refugees to relocate to Japan has prompted criticism of the country’s strict policy on asylum: last year, it received a record 5,000 applications but accepted just 11 people.
Speaking at the UN general assembly in New York, Abe insisted Japan must first tackle crises posed by its falling birth rate and an ageing population, and continue its push to boost the number of women in the labour market.
“It is an issue of demography,” Abe told reporters after his speech to the UN general assembly. “I would say that before accepting immigrants or refugees, we need to have more activities by women, elderly people and we must raise our birth rate. There are many things that we should do before accepting immigrants.”
Abe added Japan, which is pushing for a permanent seat on the UN security council, would “discharge our own responsibility” in addressing the causes of the refugee crisis.
“Japan would like to contribute by changing the conditions that give rise to refugees. The cause of this tragedy is the fear of violence and terrorism, and terror of poverty. The world must cooperate in order for them to find a way to escape poverty.”
Japan’s latest aid package includes $810m for refugees and internally displaced people fleeing fighting in Syria and Iraq – three times the amount it provided last year – and $750m to fund peace-building efforts in the Middle East and Africa.
Human rights groups have highlighted the fact Japan and other high-income countries such as Russia, Singapore and South Korea have failed to help relieve the pressure on countries in the Middle East and Europe, as they struggle to cope with the influx of people caught up in the world’s worst refugee crisis since the second word war.
Japan, however, has pointed to its record on providing aid to refugees: last year, it contributed $181.6m to the UN refugee agency, second only to the US. But it has not matched its financial largesse with pledged to accommodate Syrian and other refugees.
Of 60 Syrians already living in Japan who applied for refugee status, three have been successful and another 30 or so have been given permission to stay long-term for humanitarian reasons, according to the Japanese association for refugees.
Japan’s population is expected to fall dramatically in the coming decades, with experts predicting a serious strain on the economy from a shrinking workforce and rising pension and social security costs. But few politicians have broached immigration as a possible solution.
“To publicly broach mass immigration – and the multicultural adjustments in Japanese life that it would necessarily entail – as a means of solving the country’s looming demographic crisis is something that verges on sacrilege,” said MG Sheftall, a professor of modern Japanese cultural history at Shizuoka University. “For an important national figure to do so would be an act of political suicide.”
While he did not mention any country by name, the EU council president, Donald Tusk, appeared to round on the “hypocrisy” of Gulf states criticising European nations for not taking in enough refugees, while refusing to accept any themselves.
“Many countries represented here deal with this problem in a much simpler way; namely by not allowing migrants and refugees to enter their territories at all,” Tusk said in New York."
"Japan must improve the living standards of its own people before it can consider accepting Syrian refugees, the prime minister, Shinzo Abe said, as he announced $1.6bn in new assistance for Syrians and Iraqis caught up in conflicts in the Middle East.
Abe’s consistent refusal to consider allowing even a modest number of refugees to relocate to Japan has prompted criticism of the country’s strict policy on asylum: last year, it received a record 5,000 applications but accepted just 11 people.
Speaking at the UN general assembly in New York, Abe insisted Japan must first tackle crises posed by its falling birth rate and an ageing population, and continue its push to boost the number of women in the labour market.
“It is an issue of demography,” Abe told reporters after his speech to the UN general assembly. “I would say that before accepting immigrants or refugees, we need to have more activities by women, elderly people and we must raise our birth rate. There are many things that we should do before accepting immigrants.”
Abe added Japan, which is pushing for a permanent seat on the UN security council, would “discharge our own responsibility” in addressing the causes of the refugee crisis.
“Japan would like to contribute by changing the conditions that give rise to refugees. The cause of this tragedy is the fear of violence and terrorism, and terror of poverty. The world must cooperate in order for them to find a way to escape poverty.”
Japan’s latest aid package includes $810m for refugees and internally displaced people fleeing fighting in Syria and Iraq – three times the amount it provided last year – and $750m to fund peace-building efforts in the Middle East and Africa.
Human rights groups have highlighted the fact Japan and other high-income countries such as Russia, Singapore and South Korea have failed to help relieve the pressure on countries in the Middle East and Europe, as they struggle to cope with the influx of people caught up in the world’s worst refugee crisis since the second word war.
Japan, however, has pointed to its record on providing aid to refugees: last year, it contributed $181.6m to the UN refugee agency, second only to the US. But it has not matched its financial largesse with pledged to accommodate Syrian and other refugees.
Of 60 Syrians already living in Japan who applied for refugee status, three have been successful and another 30 or so have been given permission to stay long-term for humanitarian reasons, according to the Japanese association for refugees.
Japan’s population is expected to fall dramatically in the coming decades, with experts predicting a serious strain on the economy from a shrinking workforce and rising pension and social security costs. But few politicians have broached immigration as a possible solution.
“To publicly broach mass immigration – and the multicultural adjustments in Japanese life that it would necessarily entail – as a means of solving the country’s looming demographic crisis is something that verges on sacrilege,” said MG Sheftall, a professor of modern Japanese cultural history at Shizuoka University. “For an important national figure to do so would be an act of political suicide.”
While he did not mention any country by name, the EU council president, Donald Tusk, appeared to round on the “hypocrisy” of Gulf states criticising European nations for not taking in enough refugees, while refusing to accept any themselves.
“Many countries represented here deal with this problem in a much simpler way; namely by not allowing migrants and refugees to enter their territories at all,” Tusk said in New York."
Japan takes no Syrian refugees yet despite giving $200m to help fight Isis
Although it is the second largest donor to the UN refugee agency after the US, in 2014 Japan accepted just 11 asylum seekers out of 5000 applicants
Japan has no immediate plans to accept refugees from Syria, despite earlier pledging financial and political support for the military campaign against Islamic State.
As the EU, with Lebanon, Jordan and other countries, struggled to accommodate hundreds of thousands of people fleeing fighting in Syria and Iraq, governments thousands of kilometres away also pledged to take extra refugees.
First of the extra 12,000 refugees could arrive in Australia before Christmas
Read more
On Wednesday Australia said it would accept an extra 12,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees, on top of its existing humanitarian intake of 13,750.
The Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, said his country would accept 20,000 Syrians who were “welcome to share this land of peace and contribute to our country’s development”.
Japan, however, said that although Tokyo was “cooperating” with its international partners over the crisis, it was not preparing to change its policy to accommodate Syrian refugees.
“We are watching the situation very closely and considering what Japan can do in cooperation with the international community, including the United Nations,” a foreign ministry official said.
“We are aware of the large exodus of refugees from the Middle East and Africa and that many lives have been lost. We’re paying close attention to appeals for assistance.”
Hiroaki Ishii, the executive director of the Japan association for refugees, said the government’s attitude could change.
“There are definitely discussions going on,” he told the Guardian.
Of 60 Syrians already living in Japan who had applied for refugee status, three had been successful and another 30 or so had been given permission to stay long-term for humanitarian reasons.
“Japan should be leading the Asia-Pacific region in addressing the refugee crisis,” he said.
“If Japan is serious about doing something out of humanitarian concern, it should announce a more generous policy towards Syrian refugees and other victims of Isis, including resettlement to Japan and better protection for the 400 Syrian people already living here.”
During a visit to Egypt in January, Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, pledged US$200m in humanitarian aid for Middle East countries engaged in fighting Isis, a move that Isis said prompted its execution of two Japanese citizens after Tokyo refused to pay a ransom.
Japan is the second largest donor to the UN refugee agency after the US, with contributions totalling US$181.6m last year.
But it has not supplemented its huge financial contribution with a more accommodating approach towards asylum seekers. Last year the justice ministry received a record 5000 asylum applications – 1740 more than in the previous year – but accepted just 11.
“The low recognition rate is shameful,” said an immigration lawyer, Shogo Watanabe.
The US, by contrast, granted asylum to 21,171 refugees in 2013; Germany accepted 10,915 and France 9,099. Even South Korea, which has strict asylum laws, approved 57 applications, according to Kazuyoshi Harada, writing for the Nippon.com website. By the end of 2014, he said, Japan had approved a cumulative total of just 633 applications for refugee status.
According to Amnesty International, high-income countries such as Russia, Singapore, Japan and South Korea have so far offered zero resettlement places to Syrian refugees.
Pressure is building for Japan’s government to do more.
This week Peter Sutherland, a special representative of the UN secretary general for migration and development, called on Japan, the US and wealthy Gulf states to “face their responsibilities” towards Syrian refugees as the exodus from the country intensifies.
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