Though Shinto and Buddhism are Japan's major religions and other faiths have little following, Yamamoto says the number of conversions to Islam is increasing in his country. Indeed, he was introduced to the religion by his university lecturer, another Muslim convert, in Japan. "The conversion is easy but practicing the religion is difficult in Japan. People have a lack of knowledge," he complains. He says he learned how to perform prayers properly and about other requirements of Islam in Turkey.
Yamamoto is now leading an ambitious project to "train Muslim intellectuals." These future intellectuals are Japanese Muslim converts who come to Istanbul to join him for Islamic classes, either at the study room of a local nongovernmental organization (NGO) or in other places. Currently, he has five students who are learning about the religion as well as other Islamicate languages from him. Yamamoto also organizes online classes to reach out to other converts back in his homeland. "I train people here, so they will return to Japan to teach more people about Islam," he says.
Hüseyin Jumpei Watanabe, who converted to Islam five years ago, is among his students. The 24-year-old who hails from Nagoya, Japan, says he was introduced to Islam while learning about the plight of Muslims in Syria and Iraq during the recent conflicts. Watanabe says he is both learning Turkish and Islam in Turkey and will convey what he learned here to others in Japan, where he studies social sciences.
