Islam in Japan: history and Muslim population data

History of Islam in Japan

It has a total area of 377,915 sq km consisting of 6,852 islands. By far, thelargest island is Honshu with area 227,963 sq km, four-fifth of thepopulation, and where the capital Tokyo is located. The largest of theremaining islands are Hokkaido (83,454 sq km) with 5% of thepopulation, Kyushu (35,640 sq km) with 10% of the population, Shikoku(18,800 sq km) with 3% of the population and Okinawa (1,201 sq km)with 1% of the population.

Islam entered this archipelago at the turn of the twentieth centurywhen Japanese embraced Islam abroad and returned home. Thisincludes Omar Yamaoka who founded the Islamic fraternity in Tokyo in1911. The number increased when Muslim Tatar from Central Asia cameas refugees to Japan after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. The 1940Census recorded 499 foreign nationals from Muslim-majority countries:239 Turkiye, 56 Indonesia, 52 Iran, 46 Syria, 36 Afghanistan, thirty Egypt,sixteen Albania, twelve Iraq, eleven Yemen and one from Morocco. TheMuslim population remained less than 0.01% of the total populationuntil the end of 1980s. After WWII it consisted primarily of Indonesiannationals, whose number increased from 191 in 1947, to 257 in 1950, to284 in 1955. Noticeable increase in the Muslim population started in the1980s due to Japan’s economic boom. The largest of Muslim nationalitiesare Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malaysia and Egypt.

Accordingly, the Muslim population increased from 600 in 1960, to1,500 in 1965, to 1,700 in 1970, to 2,200 in 1975, to 3,300 in 1980, butremained at 0.00% of the total population. The Muslim population thenincreased to 6,100 or 0.01% in 1985, to 14,000 or 0.01% in 1990, to 31,000or 0.02% in 1995, to 50,000 or 0.04% in 2000, to 59,000 or 0.05% in 2005, to60,000 or 0.05% in 2010, to 79,000 or 0.06% in 2015 and 127,000 or 0.10%in 2020

Thus, assuming that the Muslim population will continue to increaseby 0.05 of a percentage point per decade; then the Muslim population is expected to reach 0.3 million or 0.3% by 2050 and 0.4 million or 0.5% by2100.

Historical Muslim population dataset for Japan

The figures below are from the CoMPS historical dataset. Population values are expressed in thousands; 2100 is a modelled projection, not a present-day count.

For the full time series and visualisation, use the interactive map above.