Islam is a minority religion in Japan. As of 2025, there are an estimated 420,000 Muslims in Japan, representing around 0.3% of the total population. Due to a small initial population base, immigration from Muslim majority countries has made Islam one of the fastest growing religions in the country in terms of percentage increase, with its followers growing by approximately 110%, from 110,000 in 2010 to 230,000 at the end of 2019, out of the total population of Japan of around 126 million.
While there were isolated occasions of Muslim presence in Japan before the 19th century, today, approximately 90% of Muslims in Japan are of foreign origin, with the rest being native Japanese converts.
History Early history There are isolated records of contact between Japan and the Muslim World before the opening of the country in 1853, possibly as early as the 1700s; some Muslims did arrive in earlier centuries, although these were isolated incidents. One of the earliest known reference to these incidents is found in the Shoku Nihongi which mentioned a few people from Persia and the neighboring regions arrived to Japan in the mid 8th century.Muhammad Learning the Dao and Writing Sutras https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110312546.295 Some elements of Islamic philosophy were also distilled as far as back as the Heian period through Chinese and Southeast Asian sources. Abdurreshid Ibrahim mentioned Muslims traded, married and had children with local Japanese women, but unlike in China and Southeast Asia were unable to create communities and their children assimilated into broader Japanese Buddhist and Shinto society Âlem-i İslam ve Japonya'da İntişar-ı İslâmiyet Page 921-925
Medieval and early modern records
The earliest Muslim records of Japan can be found in the works of the Persian cartographer Ibn Khordadbeh, who has been understood by Michael Jan de Goeje to mention Japan as the "lands of Waqwaq" twice: "East of China are the lands of Waqwaq, which are so rich in gold that the inhabitants make the chains for their dogs and the collars for their monkeys of this metal. They manufacture tunics woven with gold. Excellent ebony wood is found there." And: "Gold and ebony are exported from Waqwaq."Saudi Aramco World: The Seas of Sindbad , Paul Lunde Mahmud Kashgari's 11th century atlas indicates the land routes of the Silk Road and Japan in the map's easternmost extent.
Multiple of the Chinese delegates to Japan appear to have been Muslim.Buddhism and Islam Mutual engagements in southeast Asia and Japan In 754, the Japanese envoy sat next to the Arab delegate in the court of Tang China Nihongo no Chūtō Hakken by Hideaki Sugita
The first recorded Muslim in history to go to Japan was Sadr ud-Din (撒都魯丁 pronounced as Sādōulǔdīng in Chinese and Sadorotei in Japanese, also wrongly transcribed as 都魯丁 Dūlǔdīng and 撤都魯丁 Chèdōulǔdīng by the Japanese), sent by Yuan China in 1275 as a diplomatic delegation ordering the Japanese to submit to the Yuan emperor between the two Mongol invasions of Japan. He was beheaded by the Japanese. A Buddhist monk criticised the executions of the envoys.
The Persian historian Rashid al-Din Hamadani mentioned Japan twice in his historical work Jami' al-tawarikh as Jimingu and described it having many cities and mines.
During that period there was contact between the Hui, general Lan Yu of the Ming dynasty and the swordsmiths of Japan. According to Chinese sources, Lan Yu owned 10,000 Katana, Hongwu Emperor was displeased with the general's links with Kyoto and more than 15,000 people were implicated for alleged treason and executed.(二十六年二月，錦衣衛指揮蔣瓛告玉謀反，下吏鞫訊。獄辭雲：「玉同景川侯曹震、鶴慶侯張翼、舳艫侯硃壽、東莞伯何榮及吏部尚書詹徽、戶部侍郎傅友文等謀為變，將伺帝出耤田舉事。」獄具，族誅之。列侯以下坐黨夷滅者不可勝數。手詔佈告天下，條列爰書為《逆臣錄》。至九月，乃下詔曰：「藍賊為亂，謀泄，族誅者萬五千人。自今胡黨、藍黨概赦不問。」胡謂丞相惟庸也。於是元功宿將相繼盡矣。凡列名《逆臣錄》者，一公、十三侯、二伯。葉升前坐事誅，胡玉等諸小侯皆別見。其曹震、張翼、張溫、陳桓、硃壽、曹興六侯，附著左方。)Others implicated in the Lan Yu Case include: Han Xun (韓勛), Marquis of Dongping (東平侯); Cao Tai (曹泰), Marquis of Xuanning (宣寧侯); Cao Xing (曹興), Marquis of Huaiyuan (懷遠侯); Ye Sheng (葉升), Marquis of Jingning (靖寧侯); Cao Zhen (曹震), Marquis of Jingchuan (景川侯); Zhang Wen (張溫), Marquis of Huining (會寧侯); Chen Huan (陳桓), Marquis of Puding (普定侯); Zhang Yi (張翼), Marquis of Heqing (鶴慶侯); Zhu Shou (朱壽), Marquis of Zhulu (舳艫侯); Chahan (察罕), Marquis of Haixi (海西侯); Sun Ke (孫恪), Marquis of Quanning (全寧侯); He Rong (何榮), Count of Dongguan (東莞伯); Sang Jing (桑敬), Count of Huixian (徽先伯) Lan Yu's ethnicity is disputed with some Hui claiming he was Hui but his biography in official Ming records do not mention him being Hui.
In the 13th century, a manuscript written by Persians from Quanzhou in China for the Japanese monk Keisei was brought back to Japan.
In the 14th century, an Arab or possibly Persian or Indian man named Hijiri (Hishiri) arrived in Japan in 1374 and would marry a local woman at Osaka in 1376. His children would assimilate to broader Japanese Buddhist society. Hijri's younger son Minbukyo Nyudo would inherent his possessions. He had two children whom the eldest of which, Musuru (Musul?) became a successful merchant, and became affiliated with the Kōfuku-ji temple. Musuru also was given a post by Ashikaga Yoshimochi due to his knowledge in foreign affairs, the Ming dyansty, and navigation. Later on Musuru changed his name to 'Kusuha Nyudo Sainin' after his mother. Musuru would marry and have three sons and two daughters. One of which became a Buddhist monk in the Kōfuku-ji temple. Shinji Maejima mentions "Sainin seems to have been a Muslim" Oman and Japan: Unknown Cultural Exchange by Haruo Endo https://docslib.org/doc/1354992/oman-and-japan#google_vignette
In 1408 a Hui Muslim chieftain named Shi Jinqing sent an envoy with gifts to the king of Japan
Early European accounts of Muslims and their contacts with Japan were maintained by Portuguese sailors who mention a passenger aboard their ship, an Arab who had preached Islam to the people of Japan. He had sailed to the islands in Malacca in 1555.Asia in the Making of Europe, Volume I: The Century of Discovery. - Donald F. Lach - Google Books
In the 17th century, Iranian merchants from Thailand arrived to Nagasaki during the Edo period. The Iranian Shaykh Ahmad fought and defeated Japanese merchants who attempted a coup against the Thai king in 1611.TOMB OF SHEIKH AHMAD QOMI - History of Ayutthaya In the 17th century text Safine-ye Solaymani, Shia writer Mohammad Ibrahim described Japan and its culture, economy, recent political upheavals and their relationship with foreign merchants.
Modern records
In the late 1870s, the biography of Muhammad was translated into Japanese. This helped Islam spread and reach the Japanese people, but only as a part of the history of cultures.
Another important contact was made in 1890 when Sultan and Caliph Abdul Hamid II of the Ottoman Empire dispatched a naval vessel to Japan for the purpose of saluting the visit of Japanese Prince Komatsu Akihito to the capital of Constantinople several years earlier. This frigate was called the Ertugrul, and was destroyed in a storm on the way back along the coast of Wakayama Prefecture on September 16, 1890. The Kushimoto Turkish Memorial and Museum are dedicated in honor of the drowned diplomats and sailors.
In 1891, an Ottoman crew who were shipwrecked on the Japanese coast the previous year were assisted in their return to Constantinople by the Imperial Japanese navy. Shotaro Noda, a journalist who accompanied them, became the earliest known Japanese convert during his stay in the Ottoman capital.
Early 20th century
In the wake of the October Revolution, several hundred Tatar Muslim refugees from Central Asia and Russia were given asylum in Japan, settling in several main cities and formed small communities. Some Japanese converted to Islam through contact with these Muslims. Historian Caeser E. Farah documented that in 1909 the Russian-born Ayaz İshaki and writer Abdurreshid Ibrahim (1857–1944), were the first Muslims who successfully converted the first ethnic Japanese, when Kotaro Yamaoka converted in 1909 in Bombay after contacting Ibrahim and took the name Omar Yamaoka. Yamaoka became the first Japanese to go on the Hajj. Yamaoka and Ibrahim were traveling with the support of nationalistic Japanese groups like Black Dragon Society (Kokuryūkai). Yamaoka in fact had been with the intelligence service in Manchuria since the Russo-Japanese War. His official reason for traveling was to seek the Ottoman Sultan and Caliph's approval for building a mosque in Tokyo. This approval was granted in 1910. The Tokyo Mosque, was finally completed on 12 May 1938, with generous financial support from the zaibatsu. Its first imams were Abdul-Rashid Ibrahim and Abdülhay Kurban Ali (Muhammed-Gabdulkhay Kurbangaliev) (1889–1972). However, Japan's first mosque, the Kobe Mosque was built in 1935, with the support of the Turko-Tatar community of traders there. The Kobe Mosque, which survived both American bombing raids and the 1995 Kobe Earthquake was designed by Czech architect Jan Josef Švagr. On 12 May 1938, a mosque was dedicated in Tokyo. Another early Japanese convert was Bunpachiro Ariga, who about the same time as Yamaoka went to India for trading purposes and converted to Islam under the influence of local Muslims there, and subsequently took the name Ahmed Ariga. Yamada Toajiro was for almost 20 years from 1892 the only resident Japanese trader in Constantinople.His memoirs: Toruko Gakan, Tokyo 1911 During this time he served unofficially as consul. He converted to Islam, and took the name Abdul Khalil, and made a pilgrimage to Mecca on his way home.
Japanese nationalists and Islam
In the late Meiji period, close relations were forged between Japanese military elites with an Asianist agenda and Muslims to find a common cause with those suffering under the yoke of Western hegemony.Japan's Global Claim to Asia and the World of Islam: Transnational Nationalism and World Power, 1900-1945. S Esenbel. The American Historical Review 109 (4), 1140-1170 In 1906, widespread propaganda campaigns were aimed at Muslim nations with journals reporting that a Congress of religions was to be held in Japan where the Japanese would seriously consider adopting Islam as the national religion and that the Emperor was at the point of becoming a Muslim.Bodde, Derk. “Japan and the Muslims of China.” Far Eastern Survey, vol. 15, no. 20, 1946, pp. 311–313., www.jstor.org/stable/3021860.