| Article type | Research article |  |
| Year | 2026 | |
| Author(s) | Bardakchyan H. | |
| Journal title | Vestnik of Russian-Armenian University (series: humanities and social sciences) | |
| Issue | 1 | |
| Pages | 196-208 | |
| Publication format | ||
| DOI | 10.24412/1829-0485-2026-1-196-208 |
ABSTRACT
This article is devoted to a historical analysis of Japan's contacts with the Islamic world, as well as the peculiarities of the perception of Islam by the Japanese intellectual elite in the early stages of these interactions. It examines both sporadic contacts before the Meiji era and the processes of the systematic penetration of Islam into Japan in the late 19-th and early 20th centuries. Key events and personalities are analyzed, including the shipwreck of the frigate “Ertuğru”l, the emergence of the first Japanese Muslims, the activities of “secret societies” and the emergence of ideas of a syncretic “Japanese Islam”. Special attention is paid to the interrelationship of religion and politics, manifested in the use of the Islamic factor within the framework of the geopolitical and economic interests of the Japanese Empire.
Keywords: Japan, Islam, syncretism, Pan-Asianism, geopolitics.
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