In the growth of the population of foreigners living in Japan, it seems like that specific ethnic group has also increased. Especially, I feel the presence of Muslims has enhanced in Japanese society these days. The scene that many Muslim children go to Japanese public school can be seen in the morning nowadays.
How to coexist both Japanese cultures based on Shinto and Islam’s culture bound by a strict precept against dietary constituent, dress code, and divine service in Japanese society is one mission for the government that strengths the acceptance of foreigners. Municipalities think out various devices of a system to coexist with Muslim culture.
As of 2017, the number of Muslims in Japan is about 170,000. About 30 percent of natives from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, and Indonesia concentrate in the north Kanto area of Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, and Saitama. The number of Children younger than 20 years old is estimated at about 20,000 to 25,000.
A lot of Muslims immigrated to Japan as manual labor in 1990, the period of the Japanese bubble economy. It is quite natural for Muslims to concentrate in the north Kanto area where there are a lot of factory districts. Not a few Muslims made every effort to blend in the Japanese community like they got married to Japanese partners and built a happy family in Japan.
Mosques for their services has established all over Japan and Muslim culture has surely rooted in Japanese society. In the north Kanto area where many Muslims live, municipalities put their efforts to arrange the environment to coexist both Japanese culture and Muslim culture.
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Educational environment surrounding Muslim children in Japan
Households financially comfortable enough to let children receive a good education tend to prefer to let children enter an international school. Such parents having a daughter want to let a daughter enter a female high-school when she grows a teenager.
Mothers with fears that their children put religiously tabooed food into their months pay serious attention to meal menus given by a school. Mothers tell children what kind foods correspond to halal from the menus and let children bring a lunch box if there is something that Muslims can’t eat included in a provided-meal in school
A Pakistani man who leaves a daughter in a nursery school feels strongly a sense of resistance against the school’s swimming activity that teachers let both boys and girls get into a pool without consideration to change swimming class hour between boys and girls.
An Iranian girl who usually wears a veil change to a cap when having a class of PE as other classmates do and other Muslim parents let a daughter wear a comfortable upper garment that doesn’t emphasize a body line and a long skirt or a pants but schools setting rules of the uniforms don’t allow Muslim’s dress code. There is a case that some schools show their understanding of Muslim’s custom and give special treatment to these children because Muslims in Japanese school is overwhelmingly minority.
For Muslim children, it is much more important if classmates understand their situation. There are so many problems to survive in Japanese society because Muslims want to prioritize protecting precepts more than anything wherever they go. Although to varying degrees, as long as Muslims hope to find a perfect environment even in a foreign land without compromises, no one never complains current treatment.
In an international school, there are children believing in Christianity, Judaism and Hinduism mixed together so Muslim children have the advantage of easily getting the understanding of the religious custom from the people in school. However, children who can enter such an international school are limited because of high school fees.
Most of Muslims have no choice but to go to Japanese public school. A school meal without specific foods for allergic students are accepted and the difference of dietary constituent is permitted under justifiable reason in school. This policy also applies to Muslim children whose dietary constituent is limited because of religious reason.
A Muslim mother who makes child’s lunch box every day can somehow protect her family’s worship in terms of child’s food but it is way hard for her to make a lunch box continuously for her child for 9 years (which is total compulsory education period in Japan).
Especially, for a Muslin’s family with a daughter, dress code and promiscuous swimming class is the cause of worry. In case of a school meal, a lunch box is an alternative solution for it but a dress code and swimming problems confront school regulations and rules.
Compatibility between school life and religious life
Each municipalities think out measures for coexistence of school life and religious life in school for Muslim children.
| Bring a lunch box alternatively | |
| Use principal’s room for praying | |
| Many Muslim children don’t fast during lower classes of elementary school | |
| Wait at library if there is a class which is against a religious policy | |
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Dress Code
Precepts related to women’s dress code is quite strict in Islam, as you know. You need to devise a creative way. Some mothers don’t let a daughter wear Hijab while going to elementary school. Wearing Hijab is really depending on the mother by her religious policy but almost all the Japanese public school tend to accept wearing this.
In case of wearing a uniform, if a skirt is designated as a uniform, a Muslim girl wears spats under a skirt
In case that a school designates a school gym uniform for PE class, Muslim mothers let their daughters wear a long sleeve shirt and pants under a designated gym uniform or not wear a designated gym uniform but just long sleeve shirt and pants
Worship
Worship is 5 times a day. Worship after noon during school time is done at the principal’s room.
Fasting
Some Muslim families don’t let a child fast during lower classes of elementary school because physical burden by fasting is quite bad in health especially until a child becomes older than 10 years old.
A school provides vacant rooms for children who fast in lunchtime.
Treatment in class time
Some Muslim families don’t let children join classes of music and artworks because, according to Hadith, there is a description that melody of a musical instrument is the lure from the demon, and artworks can interfere the prohibition of idolatry. During those class, Muslim children spend in a library.
The above cases were considered within a reasonable range in the process of taking counsel between Muslim families and teachers before admission.
An education committee of a municipality where there are a lot of Muslim children says “sharing information and understand and respect mutual position are the most important thing to realize the coexistence of Islam culture and Japanese culture. ”