Population figure given is forcitizens of Turkey living in Japan. The Turkish Embassy gives a lower figure of 2,264 (2006); however, this counts only citizens who have voluntarily registered at the embassy.[3]
In the early 20th century, groups of Tatars immigrated fromKazan,Russia, toJapan.[4] The community became led by theBashkir émigréimamMuhammed-Gabdulkhay Kurbangaliev, who had fought on the side of theWhite movement in theRussian Civil War and arrived in Japan in 1924; he then set up an organisation[fn 1] to bring together the Tatars living in Tokyo.[4] Tatars in Japan founded their firstmosque and school in 1935 inKobe and another in Tokyo in 1938, with support from Kurbangaliev's organisation.[4][5] Another Tatar organisation, the Mohammedan Printing Office in Tokyo,[fn 2] printed the firstQur'an in Japan as well as aTatar language magazine inArabic script, theJapan Intelligencer;[fn 3] it continued publication until the 1940s.[4] Most of the Tatars emigrated afterWorld War II.[4] Those remaining took up Turkish citizenship in the 1950s.[3]But there are 600-2,000 Tatars in Japan.[6] They are almost mixed.[7]
Though the Turkish community has diminished in size, those remaining founded the Tokyo Camii and Turkish Cultural Center in 2000.[4][8] In the following decade, there was a new wave of migration from Turkey, mostly consisting of people from theFatsa area.[9]
Some Turkish citizens in Japan are ethnic Kurds.[10]
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.[11]
Usmanova, Larisa (2007),The Türk-Tatar diaspora in Northeast Asia: transformation of consciousness : a historical and sociological account between 1898 and the 1950s, Rakudasha,ISBN978-4-9903822-0-9
松長 昭 [Matsunaga Akira] (2009),在日タタール人―歴史に翻弄されたイスラーム教徒たち [Tatars in Japan: Muslims tossed on the waves of history], 東洋書店 [Tōyō Shoten],ISBN978-4-88595-832-8
