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.
There is also no truth to the claim that that you cannot import a Koran into Japan. There are several mosques operating in Japan. and according to an article on the web site Japan Focus about Muslims living in Japan, at least one mosque teaches both Koranic studies and the Arabic language:
At the mosque in Ebina, Kanagawa Prefecture, about 10 children around age 10 are learning the Arabic alphabet. Every day from 4 pm to 8 pm, the mosque holds Koran classes. They started last November, at the urging of Pakistani and Bangladeshi Muslims living in the area who wanted their children to be properly versed in the ancestral religion and the Arabic language. The classes are taught by the parents themselves.
Slaiman, a 39-year-old Sri Lankan who lives in neighboring Yamato and deals in used cars, sends his two sons, age 8 and 4, to classes at the mosque. He himself began studying Arabic at age 5 at a mosque school in Sir Lanka. He wants to give his own children a similar religious environment. “The Koran is written in Arabic,” he says. “If the children don’t learn it now they won’t be able to read it properly or understand the meaning of the prayers.”
Islam is not faith in isolation. It teaches faith, morality and human relations as a whole, and children must learn it early if they are to fully master it. “Japanese schools teach only knowledge — not how to be a good human being,” says one Muslim father.
While the claim that Japan is the only country in the world that has a negligible number of embassies in Islamic countries hinges on the definition of “negligible,” the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs maintains embassies in several predominantly Islamic countries, including Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Comoros, and Egypt.
Several of the other rumors in the above-displayed meme can be debunked by the facts previously stated, using common sense (e.g., with approximately 100,000 Muslims living in Japan it is reasonable to assume that some of them are renting apartments), or by reading the 14th article of Japan’s constitution:
“All of the people are equal under the law and there shall be no discrimination in political, economic or social relations because of race, creed, sex, social status or family origin.”
The one claim that the above-displayed meme did get right is the assertion that there is no Shariah Law in Japan. Article 20 of Japan’s constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion to all Japan citizens, also states that religious organizations cannot exercise political authority:
No religious organization shall receive any privileges from the State, nor exercise any political authority. 2) No person shall be compelled to take part in any religious acts, celebration, rite or practice. 3) The State and its organs shall refrain from religious education or any other religious activity.
The above-displayed meme does not showcase different ways that Japan has been able to keep “Islam at bay.” In fact, the country’s immigration policies may have helped the Muslim population grow:
In 1982, Muslims numbered some 30,000; half of whom were native Japanese and the rest of different origins. With complete freedom of religion in Japan, the number of Muslims is expected to reach 100,000
There are countries in the world, mainly in Europe, that are presently undergoing significant cultural transformations as a result of Muslim immigration. France, Germany, Belgium and Holland are interesting examples of cases where immigration from Muslim countries, together with the Muslims’ high fertility rate, effects every area of life.
It is interesting to know that there is a country in the world whose official and public approach to the Muslim matter is totally different. This country is Japan. This country keeps a very low profile on all levels regarding the Muslim matter: On the diplomatic level, senior political figures from Islamic countries almost never visit Japan, and Japanese leaders rarely visit Muslim countries. The relations with Muslim countries are based on concerns such as oil and gas, which Japan imports from some Muslim countries. The official policy of Japan is not to give citizenship to Muslims who come to Japan, and even permits for permanent residency are given sparingly to Muslims.
Japan forbids exhorting people to adopt the religion of Islam (Dawah), and any Muslim who actively encourages conversion to Islam is seen as proselytizing to a foreign and undesirable culture. Few academic institutions teach the Arabic language. It is very difficult to import books of the Qur’an to Japan, and Muslims who come to Japan, are usually employees of foreign companies. In Japan there are very few mosques. The official policy of the Japanese authorities is to make every effort not to allow entry to Muslims, even if they are physicians, engineers and managers sent by foreign companies that are active in the region. Japanese society expects Muslim men to pray at home.
Japanese companies seeking foreign workers specifically note that they are not interested in Muslim workers. And any Muslim who does manage to enter Japan will find it very difficult to rent an apartment. Anywhere a Muslim lives, the neighbors become uneasy. Japan forbids the establishment of Islamic organizations, so setting up Islamic institutions such as mosques and schools is almost impossible. In Tokyo there is only one imam.
In contrast with what is happening in Europe, very few Japanese are drawn to Islam. If a Japanese woman marries a Muslim, she will be considered an outcast by her social and familial environment. There is no application of Shari’a law in Japan. There is some food in Japan that is halal, kosher according to Islamic law, but it is not easy to find it in the supermarket.
The Japanese approach to Muslims is also evidenced by the numbers: in Japan there are 127 million residents, but only ten thousand Muslims, less than one hundredth of a percent. The number of Japanese who have converted is thought to be few. In Japan there are a few tens of thousands of foreign workers who are Muslim, mainly from Pakistan, who have managed to enter Japan as workers with construction companies. However, because of the negative attitude towards Islam they keep a low profile.
* I listened to an interview with an Australian scientist who had scored a job in one of the research facilities in Japan. He said he had to come back to Australia early; he couldn’t stand it there. As all scientists do he reviewed papers from others in the group: get out the red pen, mark up any dodgy assumptions, non sequiturs, missing references, etc. It didn’t go down well: Dr Yamamoto has spent years on this paper, you can’t just excoriate it like that! The Japanese (/Asians) see criticism as a point of honour, whereas in the west (following Ancient Greece) it is seen as a key to scientific progress. Perhaps that is why, although many Asians do well in science, it is usually limited to those working in western universities – those who leave aside the Asian honour culture.
* “Harmony” is a word that comes up all the time in Western writing about Japan. Perhaps it’s a mistranslation, but it seems likely that the Japanese would not take well to Donald Trump. On the other hand, they appear to devote some thought to how not to make Donald Trump a necessity.
* Hitoshi Igarashi, the Japanese translator of Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses was likely killed by a Muslim terrorist. I say “likely” because the killer was never caught.
* Steve, you risk discrediting yourself, the alt-right, and Ron Unz, by repeating these demonstrably incorrect claims without the verification and refutation they deserve.
Japan has no such policy, forbids no such thing, etc. You should google, factcheck, and then refute the claims. It’s your responsibility and duty to do your best to destroy this plague meme.
All that Japan does is to not actively import third-world muslims, with government funds. This is due to their elites no actively hating their own people, desiring to “multiculturalize” them. And that is enough.
* So I take it by the standards of mainstream America, Japan has essentially become an isolationist state by cutting itself off from the world’s one and a half billion muslims. Yet Japan is probably the most high-tech society on earth and seems to be doing quite OK. Crime is low and social cohesion is high.
Immigration, schmigration who needs it? We really need to find a way to get Japan and her approach to immigration front and center in our own domestic debate over this issue.
What I find most interesting about the Japanese approach to immigration and multiculturalism is the fact they flat out reject it despite all the promotional hype it has received from Western elites. The Japanese, and other NE Asian nations, are not shy about taking what they see as the best aspects of the West and incorporating it into their own societies. Yet somehow they all seem to reject mass immigration of alien peoples and the attendant multiculturalism it brings, even though the leaders of the West constantly preach about how our success is dependent upon it.
Evidently the Japanese are able to see through the double-talk coming out of our leaders because they sure aren’t buying into the meme that the success of the West was brought about by this rampant population churn.
* KSM, taking a vacation at Club Gitmo, confessed that he and his merry band of jihadists were planning to bomb up Japan when it co-hosted the 2002 World Cup of Soccer with South Korea, but quickly gave up on those plans because they couldn’t get a sufficient ground network going within Japan.
I wonder why they couldn’t get a sufficient ground network going in Japan.
* In true American form people here are referring to what is actually written down to judge what the Japanese do or don’t do.
Yes its true-Japan doesn’t forbid Islam. So?
For example you could also argue that Japan does forbid itself an army, just a ‘self-defense’ force because, darn it all, that’s what it says in the ‘Constitution’.
And of course it has no ‘navy’ just a ‘maritime self-defense force’.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Maritime_Self-Defense_Force
(Many American vets will recognize its ‘naval ensign’ instantly)
And the Ministry of Justice has a human rights bureau, so how could it treat Islam or other foreign religions… blah blah blah :
http://www.moj.go.jp/ENGLISH/HB/hb-02.html
Article 14 of the constitution also blah blah blah. Anyhow:
http://japanfocus.org/-the_asahi_shimbun_culture_research_center-/2932/article.html
https://www.quora.com/Do-white-people-living-in-Asian-countries-ever-suffer-from-racism
I suspect unless you’re Japanese you will never understand the relationship between Japan and Islam (or anything else).
* In retrospect it appears that not we Americans, but the Japanese, won the Second World War, as the Japanese have attained for themselves all the objectives laid down in the Preamble of our Constitution, while we have relinquished those objectives and suffer under policies which, pursued further, will condemn us never to attain those objectives.
* I used to live and work in Japan circa 2000 and this post gets to the heart of the matter.
Snopes is irrelevant-their investigation of the inner workings of Japanese immigration policy is about as useful as a committee of Chisena speakers of the Lower Zambezi investigating the policies of the membership committee at the Augusta National Golf Club.
I’m not sure what the proportion of foreigners and immigrants is in Japan today. It was said to be about 300,000 in a population of 120,000,000 fifteen years ago.
If you think Britain has an unwritten constitution, Japan beats it hands down. The unspoken assumptions about the right thing to do, in every situation, including dealing with foreigners, are the invisible code and the map to the lives and actions of the Japanese. Little needs to be said, let alone documented, even behind closed doors.
An story about immigration into Japan. A colleague, born in Hong Kong of a Japanese mother, who had studied, lived and worked in Japan from his early teens, wanted to apply for citizenship, which was his right. He showed me his application form, a full 800 pages long. It took him eight years.
The Japanese have an iron grasp on their self-identity, life is good in an advanced industrial society, and they don’t want to change anything. Foreign economists and sociologists getting the vapors about zero growth rates and the labor requirements of aging populations could be on Pluto.
That’s the bottom line with the Japanese and everyone else.
