Newsletter No. 331
Research-Review
July 16, 2006

 

THE FOREIGN MUSLIM POPULATION IN JAPAN

Hiroshi Kojima is the Director of the Department of International Research and Cooperation at the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research (Tokyo). For several years he has been doing sophisticated research in order to determine the nature of the Muslim population in Japan. In March, he published a new paper in English entitled: “Variations in Demographic Characteristics of the Foreign ‘Muslim’ Population in Japan: A Preliminary Estimation.” The full paper is available online, so only an overview of his findings will be presented here.

Estimating the number of foreign Muslims in Japan is no easy business because the Japanese government does not ask individuals about their religion on any census forms. Kojima’s work is a painstaking effort to create estimates based on nationalities and other factors. At any rate, his estimate of the total population of foreign Muslims in Japan is as follows:

1984 -- 5,341
1986 -- 7,276
1988 -- 10,019
1990 -- 12,270
1992 -- 20,871
1994 -- 27,619
1995 -- 29,974
1996 -- 33,140
1997 -- 37,100
1998 -- 40,515
1999 -- 42,590
2000 -- 47,547
2001 -- 50,760
2002 -- 53,568
2003 -- 56,256
2004 -- 58,587

Kojima’s figures suggest, therefore, that the population of foreign Muslims in Japan have in fact been growing at a rate much higher than the growth of the overall foreign community. Specifically, he estimates that in 1984 only 0.6% of foreigners in Japan were Muslims, but twenty years later in 2004, that percentage had risen to 3.0%.

Looking at the situation as of 2004, Kojima finds the nationality balance of the foreign Muslim population to be as follows, counting only the top five:

35.6% -- Indonesian (20,832)
16.2% -- Bangladeshi (9,469)
14.0% -- Pakistani (8,180)
9.1% -- Iranian (5,349)
4.1% -- Turkish (2,402)

This nationality balance has undergone some changes in this period. The clearest example is the decline of the Iranian population. From 1994 to 1996 the largest single group of foreign Muslims were Iranians. In 1995, for example, Kojima estimates the Iranian population in Japan to have reached 8,559, almost 40% more than the 2004 figure. Although I’m not an expert on this issue, I’ve heard that in the mid-1990s there was public concern in Japan about theft by resident Iranians, and this led to a crackdown on them by Japanese immigration authorities.

For the full paper, please consult the following website:

http://www.ipss.go.jp/webj-ad/WebJournal.files/population/ps06_03.asp

Hiroshi Kojima, “Variations in Demographic Characteristics of the Foreign ‘Muslim’ Population in Japan: A Preliminary Estimation,” The Japanese Journal of Population, Vol. 4, No. 1, March 2006.

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THE FIRST MOSQUE IN KYUSHU

In a somewhat related story, the local page of the Mainichi Shinbun reported on the 6th of this month that efforts are underway to build the first mosque in Kyushu. These efforts are centered on the Muslim Students’ Association of Kyushu University, which has about 100 members (The article estimates that a total of about 500 Muslims live on Kyushu Island as a whole).

They have been collecting funds for the mosque since 1998, and have so far collected donations in excess of US$430,000. With this money, in September of last year, they purchased the land in Fukuoka city where they plan to build the mosque. However, the plan for the mosque calls for an estimated US$870,000 in building fees, so they still have a long way to go.

According to the article, their plan calls for a three-story structure: the first floor for men; the second floor for women; and the third floor a hall for symposiums about Islamic culture. A 36-year-old Egyptian man was quoted in Japanese to this effect: “Although it is deeply misunderstood in Japan, the Islamic religion loves peace and respects multiculturalism. We would like to create a space at this mosque where we can spread an understanding of Islamic culture and have useful exchanges.”

The Shingetsu Institute, of course, is also based on Kyushu Island, within the same Fukuoka Prefecture, so perhaps in the long run this development may have some effect on our own local operations as well.