Harun Nasrullah

There has been a surge in anti-Muslim rhetoric in Japan following Israel’s attacks on Gaza, according to a report by the Anadolu Agency.

Kayyim Naoki Yamamoto, a member of the Marmara University Institute of Turkic Studies, attributed the increase in anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian sentiments in his country to the October 7 attacks.

Yamamato, a Muslim revert, claims that anti-Muslim hate speech has increased in tandem with the growth in support for far-right groups in Japan. The academic noted that xenophobia, targeting Koreans, Chinese, and other neighbouring Asian immigrants since the early 2000s, has turned anti-Muslim.

“Japan is currently experiencing a negative change,” he said. “Xenophobia and anti-Muslim sentiments have increased exponentially in the last 15 years.”

“The Japanese government does not realise what kind of problem the growing anti-Muslim sentiment will create,” he warned. Pointing out that anti-Muslim sentiment in the country has been on the rise like never before, Yamamoto said: “Japanese people already follow the US politically and socially.”

“The US’s pro-Israel stance during the Gaza attacks caused the Japanese to become anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim,” he stressed.

He noted that the Japanese people, who support Israel, also pioneered anti-Muslim campaigns in the country, mentioning that pro-Israel lobbies spread hatred not only against Palestine but also against other Muslim countries.

Anti-Muslim sentiment in Japan is predicted to continue increasing due to the low birth rates among Japanese people, according to Yamamato. “Young Japanese are no longer marrying, and the population is not growing, but foreigners are marrying and having many children,” he said.

“Moreover, the increase in Japanese marrying foreigners causes the fascists in the country to get angry and target Muslims,” he opined.

“Japan has never been a society open to foreign cultures throughout its history,” he emphasised, adding, “Japan has never lived with so many foreigners at any time in its history. We have no such experience.”

Japan’s ageing workforce and the government’s drive “to bring people from abroad to work have triggered xenophobia in the country,” said the academic.

Far-right groups in the country are trying to create public opinion by reporting the negative aspects of immigrants, the academic said, mentioning: “Far-right groups are spreading disinformation that if foreigners come to the country, there will be no good future or economy.”

“They say, ‘We need to protect Japan from foreigners and Muslims. Japan belongs to the real Japanese; we need to do something against this invasion,” he stated.

The far-right group Zaitokukai, founded in 2006, began protests claiming that it “would invade Japan.” The group’s founder, Makoto Sakurai, increased his 1.8% of the vote in the Tokyo gubernatorial election in 2016 to 2.9% in the 2020 election.

Islamophobic hate speech has surged across the internet since the conflict between Israel and Hamas broke out. The increases have been at far greater levels than what academics and researchers who monitor social media say they have seen before, with millions of often explicitly violent posts on X, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

Anti-Muslim hate speech on X jumped 422% on October 7 and 8, and rose 297% over the next five days, said the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a London-based political advocacy group.

On fringe platforms such as 4chan, Gab, and BitChute, antisemitic and Islamophobic content rose nearly 500% in the 48 hours after October. 7, according to the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, a nonprofit that tracks hate speech and extremism.