Japan's Growing Muslim Community Faces Rising Hostility
Discrimination toward foreign residents in Japan has expanded from Koreans and Kurds to Muslims as their population has estimated to have nearly doubled in recent years, according to observers and community members.
Misinformation and hate speech are spreading on Japanese social media, and mosques are receiving a barrage of abusive phone calls and emails.
Some are asking why they are suddenly being targeted. Others are afraid to leave their homes.
Muslims in Japan, including foreign residents and Japanese believers, numbered roughly 420,000 at the end of 2024, up from 230,000 in 2019, according to Hirofumi Tanada, a professor emeritus at Waseda University who studies the faith in Japan. There are now over 160 mosques nationwide.
Last year in Osaka, a rumour spread that the Muslim call to prayer was being broadcast at high volume from a mosque in the early morning.
In February of this year, a series of suspicious fires broke out at a mosque and a used car dealership operated by Pakistani nationals in Ebetsu, Hokkaido, northern Japan.
In Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, near Tokyo, protests and harassment have arisen over the construction of a mosque.
"The harassment started all of a sudden, as if it had just exploded out of nowhere," said Ali, a pseudonym, the leader of a mosque in a town in the northern Kanto region.
Since last year, he has been receiving five to 10 phone calls and emails a day containing messages such as "Go back to your country" and "Japan doesn't need mosques."
Ali's mosque was established about 30 years ago. Although members were once in conflict with the local community over issues such as street parking, tensions have eased through collaboration with local authorities and the police.
It has also been a place to teach new immigrants about Japanese customs, such as garbage collection and Japan's pension system.
"We have always strived to ensure that the mosque serves as a bridge with the local community," Ali said.
But intolerance toward Muslims suddenly spiked over the past year.
"People who don't know each other are causing a commotion on social media," said a male university student from Pakistan who had been coming to pray at the mosque. "Why is this happening when my friends are so understanding of my faith?"
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A Japanese man of Pakistani descent in his 30s said he is worried that the hostility may escalate into violence.
Demand is growing among Muslims across Japan for Islamic burial grounds and halal school meals. In Japan, cremation and burial of ashes in Buddhist temple graveyards is the norm.
Michito Ohashi is a visiting researcher at the Aichi Prefectural University institute for multicultural coexistence who specializes in the Muslim community in Japan.
"There is a tendency for local issues to be widely shared on social media, which makes it easier for anxiety to spread," said Ohashi.
He stressed that while laws and ordinances regulating hate speech have had some effect, they have not been sufficiently effective as a deterrent.
"It's important for the local community to engage with Muslims not based on their identity as Muslims but as individuals," he said.
Source: bangkokpost.com
