鐃緒申Norway's interaction with Islam is relatively new, with an influx of single male Muslims from Pakistan, Turkey and other countries in the 1960s to fill labor shortages in North Sea oil field development. Even after Norway stopped accepting Muslims in 1975, it continued to accept political refugees and asylum seekers from war zones and civil wars, as well as immigrant families from their home countries, and as a result of natural increase, there are now 163,000 Muslims living in Norway and 129 mosques in the country, about 25 times as many as in Japan. In 2011, there was a series of terrorist attacks by nationalists who hated the Labour Party, which is tolerant of immigrants, and there is also a legal opposition movement. But generally speaking, Islam has a flexibility appropriate for a world religion and is well integrated into Norwegian society, such as when to observe fasting hours at the time of the midnight sun and the polar night, allowing white women to follow Islam without covering their hair, and the popularity of Sufism among young people.
鐃緒申Japan and Islam have a long history, dating back a century to the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the Meiji Era (1868-1912), but until the end of World War II, relations between Japan and Islam were generally "top-down" and "governmental" due to the need to find effective colonial policies in inland China and Southeast Asia, and ceased totally with the end of the war. After a nearly 30-year gap, it was finally in the 1980s that workers from Muslim countries began to arrive in Japan, thanks to the bubble economy, the strong yen, and visa exemption agreements. And yet at the same time, Halal food was difficult to obtain and there were few places of worship, making it extremely difficult for them to lead a life based on their faith in Japan. In the 1990s, as many Pakistanis became economically successful by exporting used cars from Japan, there was a rapid increase in the construction of grassroots mosques. But even then, facilities for educating children were extremely scarce, and there was only one cemetery in Yamanashi Prefecture where burial was possible (Even today, as shown in the figure, there are only seven places in Japan.).
鐃緒申The case of Japan so far shows that no matter how long the relationship is, and no matter how much the state tries to promote "exchange" at the policy level, it is impossible to coexist unless the majority understands the minority at the grassroots level. In the future, the majority of Japanese should understand and respect what is the one remaining non-negotiable of Muslims, who say "We follow four out of five," a parody of the Japanese proverb, "Go ni iriteha go ni shitagae (when in Rome, do as the Romans do)".
鐃緒申Japan and Islam have a long history, dating back a century to the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the Meiji Era (1868-1912), but until the end of World War II, relations between Japan and Islam were generally "top-down" and "governmental" due to the need to find effective colonial policies in inland China and Southeast Asia, and ceased totally with the end of the war. After a nearly 30-year gap, it was finally in the 1980s that workers from Muslim countries began to arrive in Japan, thanks to the bubble economy, the strong yen, and visa exemption agreements. And yet at the same time, Halal food was difficult to obtain and there were few places of worship, making it extremely difficult for them to lead a life based on their faith in Japan. In the 1990s, as many Pakistanis became economically successful by exporting used cars from Japan, there was a rapid increase in the construction of grassroots mosques. But even then, facilities for educating children were extremely scarce, and there was only one cemetery in Yamanashi Prefecture where burial was possible (Even today, as shown in the figure, there are only seven places in Japan.).
鐃緒申The case of Japan so far shows that no matter how long the relationship is, and no matter how much the state tries to promote "exchange" at the policy level, it is impossible to coexist unless the majority understands the minority at the grassroots level. In the future, the majority of Japanese should understand and respect what is the one remaining non-negotiable of Muslims, who say "We follow four out of five," a parody of the Japanese proverb, "Go ni iriteha go ni shitagae (when in Rome, do as the Romans do)".