Assalamu `Alaykum  
    I am presenting a brief overview of the state of Islam in Japan below. This is my personal opinion and you can disagree with my analysis.  
    There are several factors which are not conducive for the wide spread acceptance of Islam by the Japanese:  
    1. These people are without any religion. They don't believe in anything except human values and material things. Their moral values include all the things which Islam teaches us. Thus there is no need of arguing with them about the virtues of telling the truth, being honest, loyal and sincere to one’s job and other fellow beings etc.  
    2. As there is no social crisis in Japan (unlike the west, where a large part of the society complains about the deteriorating family relationships, robbery, gun violence etc. which forces some of them to search for something which can give them some relief and inner satisfaction), so these people are quite content with their current state of life i.e. without getting bound in the limits of a religion.  
    3. Even if they do convert, they will convert to Christianity for obvious reasons as material wealth of the Christian West, glamour of show biz, liberty to drink and keep unmarried partners.  
    4. They don't come near Islam because of the moral degradation of the Muslims as a whole, exaggerated accounts of Muslims as militants, barbarous (e.g. what Talibans are doing is thought by Japanese as very foolish and irrational like breaking the TV sets since they are made by a Mushrik, banning all women from coming out of their homes, banning all types of recreational activities etc) and poor economic state of Muslim Ummah. Plus the restrictions on drinking and free mixing.  
    5. Unlike USA and Europe, there are very few immigrant Muslim families who have decided to make Japan their home. So the issues relating to Islamic education and training of their kids do not arise as such. Moreover, most of the Muslims living in Japan are not well educated and do manual jobs -- which means the absence of an intellectual think tank and economic resources. Also the Japanese rules regarding religious organizations have been made very strict especially after the poisonous gas attack in the Tokyo sub-way some years ago by the followers of a Japanese cult.  You will be surprised to know that there is not even a single mosque in Tokyo which is registered as a mosque!! All mosques are registered either as head offices of a business firm or a meeting place of a social organization etc. On one Eid, a gym was rented by filling out that we have a sports event and after finishing the Eid prayers, we were urged to jog, play basketball etc. to give the Japanese a false impression of a sporting event - but the Japs are no fools; they refused to rent us the gym again for such a "sporting event" two months later!!!!  

Allah Hafiz  
Tariq  
15.5.98