RELIGION-JAPAN: Getting to Know Islam

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Feb 23 1998 (IPS) - When 29-year-old Yoko decided to marry a Pakistani in October, she faced a crucial decision — as well as opposition from her parents.

“He was keen that I become a believer of Islam, so that I share his faith,” says Yoko. “The big problem was my parents.” Her parents were vehemently against the idea of her marrying a Pakistani national, and even more against her conversion to Islam.

“My mother wept and asked me to reconsider,” recalls Yoko, now a happy wife with a baby daughter. “She said she was worried because I would lose all my freedom and be completely under the control of my husband who can have another wife if he wants to. This is the image Japanese have about Muslims.”

The Japanese, after all, are more familiar with Christianity, although most of the country’s 120 million population consider themselves a mixture of Buddhists and believers in Shinto, the indigenous religion that worships nature and sees the Emperor as a descendant of gods.

At the same time, the portrayal of Muslims as terrorists in Western media has only led many Japanese to have a distrust of followers of Islam.

Today’s sabre-rattling by the United States over Iraq has obviously done little to improve the image of Islam here. But the growing presence of Muslims in Japan and the rising number of local women marrying Muslim men seem to be making the Japanese less prone to rush judgment. Instead, they are giving Islam a closer look.

The official number of Muslims in Japan runs up to 70,000, but the actual number may be far bigger given the thousands of illegal workers coming in yearly from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Iran, China and even Central Europe.

Intermarriages between the Muslim migrants and the Japanese have also been increasing. Officials at the Islamic Centre in Tokyo say Yoko and her husband were among some 100 couples who got married there last year, and note that most of the brides were Japanese who converted to Islam.

Says Abdur Rahman Siddiqi, who presides over most of the ceremonies at the Centre: “Muslim culture is not fully understood here, but I hope that more bi-cultural marriages will bring more understanding.”

That has been true, at least with Yoko’s family. While it took a while for her parents to come to terms with her marriage, Yoko herself says her new religion has given her an inner peace of mind that she did not have before.

“When I married, the special ceremony held at the Islamic Centre affected me emotionally,” says Yoko, who now covers her head and dresses more modestly than before. “In Japan, most young people only mimic tradition at weddings, and I feel I was lucky to have a real marriage.”

Indeed, although Islam, with its devotion to the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed, is difficult for many Japanese to understand, the religion has attracted more and more converts in this country in recent years.

Sociologists say one reason for this is the search for meaning by disillusioned young Japanese, who grew up in a nation focused on material development and where religion is often kept in the background.

A 1996 newspaper poll revealed that the number of Japanese who say they do not believe in God rose dramatically in the early 1990s, and that most Japanese depended on family and not faith for moral support.

The roots of such a situation lie in history, where the concept of a Japanese national community has always been dominant. When Japan came under the rule of one leader in the 19th century, the Meiji Emperor was installed as the god of the people and father of the Japanese race.

But the Emperor lost his god-image when Japan was defeated in the Pacific War, and a shamed country sought redemption in becoming in an economic powerhouse.

One result of a society that is basically “religion-free”, however, is its high tolerance of different faiths, say some Muslim migrants here.

Says Pakistani carpet seller Sohail Mir: “People are accommodating. My Japanese friends take care about preparing food that I can eat and respect my abstinence from pork and other food.”

According to Salimur Rahman Khan, who serves as the Islamic Centre’s imam or prayer leader, many Japanese company owners even prefer Muslims “who pray regularly” to those who do not. “They think if you are devoted to your religion, then you will be devoted to your family and to your work,” says Khan.

Khan explains though that tolerance does not necessarily mean complete understanding of what Islam is all about. He points out that Muslims in Japan have trouble educating their children about their faith, and often run into problems with school authorities regarding some rules.

Most Muslims here, for example, want their daughters to be allowed to wear trousers instead of skirts in schools, and would rather not have them wear the regulation swimsuits and shorts during physical education classes.

“We need a place where different cultures and religions are respected,” says Khan. “Tolerance is high in Japan, but that could also mean people are not interested in change.”