Japan’s foreign minister Yohei Kohno advocated Japan’s dialogue with Islamic countries in 2000. He thought despite the fact that significant proportion of the world population, namely more than one fifth of it, believe in Islam, the understanding of Islam in Japan has not achieved the required level. Following Kohno’s idea, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan established the Study Group for Islam in the ministry. This group came to conclusion, namely, necessity for deepening the understanding of Islam in Japan. The group advocated that eliminating inaccuracy in understanding Islam merely by extreme groups, Japan should enhance the mutual understanding between Japan and external Islamic countries. Because Japan has not experienced any aggression on Islamic countries except the South East Asia, Japan has favorable backgrounds to promote good relationship with Muslim countries. On the other hand, located close to Japan, South East Asian counties have been having strong ties with Japan regarding economy and security issue, Japan should know Islamic culture in those countries, too.
Cordoba, Sevilla and Toledo in Spain were the academic centers of the early Renaissance in Europe. European scholars first learned Greek philosophy, science, and other disciplines translated into Arabic here. European scholars translating those Arab documents into Latin. Some of the tales that form the basis of European civilization, such as Goethe’s “Faust”. Prototypes such as Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” and Hans Christian Andersen’s famous fairy tale, “The Emperor’s New Clothes” all came from Persia and Arab and entered Europe via Spain.
The Crusaders brought great influence and change to Europe by bringing advanced Islamic culture back to the Western world. Through the Crusaders, Europeans learned that the Islamic world had spread to India and was trading with China. Crusader soldiers acquired knowledge of herbs and plants, irrigation and livestock techniques and knowledge from the Islamic world and imported them into Europe. Also, not all Crusader soldiers returned to Europe, and not a few people liked the lifestyles of Palestine and Syria, such as Jerusalem, and stayed there.
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