There are roughly 250,000 Muslims in Japan .
That’s horrible.
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That sounds like a good figure, sushiman. Wikipedia tracks the number of Muslims by country.
Note, if you sort the list high to low by number of Muslims, you find that 45% live in four Asian countries: Pakistan, Indonesia, India, and Bangladesh.
Another Wiki data source claims in 2022 there were 1,181,203 long-term, non-permanent residents in Japan, each being granted visas for a duration of 12 months or more.
Watching TV documentaries here in Japan, I've seen human interest stories of Muslims from Indonesia who come to Japan to help the elderly in health care jobs.
I suspect this "halal lunches" story -- perhaps intended to alarm people about growing Muslim influence in Japan -- is probably only a simple rational decision to help out the children of Muslim parents who are health care workers in the two towns mentioned. Good for them.
Japan is a very law-abiding country with very strict immigration policies. I know because the Japanese immigration officials were super diligent at screening myself and my wife (former Japanese national) when we were granted a multi-year visa to live (and retire) in Japan two years ago.
My wife must have filled out 50 detailed forms, official documents, bank statements, personal photos -- you name it.
Glad we were approved. It's a wonderful country. The people are very welcoming of foreigners, especially Americans.