Turks in Japan ( ja, 在日トルコ人（ざいにちトルコじん）; tr, ) are

Turks Turk or Turks may refer to: Communities and ethnic groups * Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic languages * Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation * Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic ...

living in Japan. Historically, the term has included Turkic (particularly

Volga Tatar The Volga Tatars or simply Tatars ( tt-Cyrl, татарлар, tatarlar) are a Turkic ethnic group native to the Volga-Ural region of Russia. They are subdivided into various subgroups. Volga Tatars are Russia's second-largest ethnicity after ...

)

émigré An ''émigré'' () is a person who has emigrated, often with a connotation of political or social self-exile. The word is the past participle of the French ''émigrer'', "to emigrate". French Huguenots Many French Huguenots fled France followin ...

s and immigrants from former

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

, most of whom later acquired

Turkish citizenship Turkish nationality law is based primarily on the principle of '' jus sanguinis''. Children who are born to a Turkish mother or a Turkish father (in or out of marriage) are Turkish citizens from birth. The intention to renounce Turkish citi ...

History

In the early 20th century, groups of Tatars immigrated from

Kazan Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering an ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

, to Japan. The community became led by the Bashkir émigré imam Muhammed-Gabdulkhay Kurbangaliev, who had fought on the side of the White movement in the

Russian Civil War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Russian Civil War , partof = the Russian Revolution and the aftermath of World War I , image = , caption = Clockwise from top left: {{flatlist, *Soldiers ...

and arrived in Japan in 1924; he then set up an organisation to bring together the Tatars living in Tokyo. Tatars in Japan founded their first

mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...

and school in 1935 in Kobe and another in Tokyo in 1938, with support from Kurbangaliev's organisation. Another Tatar organisation, the Mohammedan Printing Office in Tokyo,; ja, 東京回教印刷所 (''Tōkyō Kaikyō Insatsusho''), group=fn printed the first

Qur'an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , s ...

in Japan as well as a Tatar language magazine in Arabic script, the ''Japan Intelligencer'';, group=fn it continued publication until the 1940s. Most of the Tatars emigrated after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Those remaining took up Turkish citizenship in the 1950s. But there are 600-2,000 Tatars in Japan. They are almost mixed. Though the Turkish community has diminished in size, those remaining founded the Tokyo Camii and Turkish Cultural Center in 2000. In the following decade, there was a new wave of migration from Turkey, mostly consisting of people from the

Fatsa Fatsa is a town and a district of Ordu Province in the central Black Sea region of Turkey. Population from Fatsa is more than 115,000. Name The oldest recorded name of the town is Polemonion ( grc, Πολεμώνιον, Latinized as Polemonium) ...

area. Some Turkish citizens in Japan are ethnic Kurds. In 2015, a clash took place outside the Turkish embassy in Tokyo between Kurds and Turks, it was claimed that this began when Turks and Kurds got into a quarrel after a Kurdish party flag was shown at the embassy.

Prominent Turks (Volga Tatars) in Japan

* Osman Yusuf (A.K.A. Johnny Yuseph, 1920 - 1982): Actor * Abdul Hannan Safa (A.K.A. Roy James, 1929 - 1982): Actor, naturalised in 1971 * Ömer Yusuf (A.K.A. Yusef Toruko ("Yusuf the Turk"), 1930 - 2013):

Puroresu is the predominant style of professional wrestling that has developed in Japan. The term comes from the Japanese pronunciation of , which is shortened to puroresu. The term became popular among English-speaking fans due to Hisaharu Tanabe's ac ...

referee and actor, brother of Osman Yusuf

Gallery

File:Kushimoto-toruko-ireihi1.jpg, Memorial to the Turkish victims of the sunken ship in Japan File:Kobe mosque01 2816.jpg,

Kobe Mosque , also known as , was founded in October, 1935 in Kobe and is Japan's first masjid. Its construction was funded by donations collected by the Islamic Committee of Kobe from 1928 until its opening in 1935.Agakhan third was a major contributor and ...

File:Tokyo_Camii_2009.jpg,

Tokyo Mosque Tokyo Mosque, also known as Tokyo Camii (pronounced Jamii), is a mosque with an adjoining Turkish culture center located in the Ōyama-chō district of Shibuya ward in Tokyo, Japan. It is the largest mosque in Japan. Originally built in 1938 ...

with Turkish Culture Center was re-built by Turkish Directorate of Religious Affairs in 2000

History

Prominent Turks (Volga Tatars) in Japan

Gallery

See also

Footnotes

References

Further reading