1 The International Conference on Islam in Asia and Oceania International Islamic University, Malaysia 9-11 October 2012 Understanding Islam in Japan - a historical perspective Prof. Dr. Samir Abdel hamid Nouh Deputy Director of center for Study of Monotheistic Religions (CISMOR) Doshisha University, Kyoto Japan 1 A discussion of Islam in Japan needs first to identify the dates of earlier contacts between Japan and Muslim world. There were some direct encounters between Japanese and Muslims before Ottoman Turks sent a naval vessel Ertugrul to japan in 1890, to honor Japan’s Prince Akihito Komatsu for his visit to Istanbul several years earlier.(1) First group consisted of 36 men led by Takeuchi Shionosuke no Kami Yasunori and included Fukuzawa Yukichi as a translator, they landed first in Aden, Yemen and on March 20 1862, they arrived in Suez for the overland journey by steam train to Alexandria. The Second group of Japanese travelers was 34 men led by Ikeda Nagaoki, bound to France, they arrived Egypt in 1864; in February 28 they travelled to Giza to see the Pyramids!(2) Also, it should be mentioned that the first merchant ship under a Muslim flag to reach Japan in modern times was the SADQIA of the BEY of Tunis in 1872.(3) In 1880 Japan sent a mission to Persian Gulf, the descriptions Ienori Honjuku ( 1852-1891) provided in his report of the voyage were the first eyewitness report of the Persian Gulf Region in Japan. The account of Ienori Honjuku gives us a rare opportunity to observe how Japanese perceived the Islamic world at a very early period in the establishment of direct contact. (4) On the other hand this report of the Japanese voyage to the Persian Gulf in 1880 confirms that the Japanese were not familiar with Islamic principals and traditions, Ienori Honjuku wrote: “Bushehre is Islamic country and therefore Women’s social position is low and men can have several wives…, drinking water is bought in a bag made of Pig skin. It is carried by horse and it is too expensive.”(5) Muslims began arriving in Modern Japan from the beginning of the OPENING of the country. Most of these Muslims were Malay and Yemeni sailors serving aboard British