Getting by but not getting ahead: Muslim families, community networks, and school lunch accommodations in Kumamoto City, Japan

As Japan’s Muslim population grows, religious accommodation in public schooling is increasingly pressing, yet existing research has focused on individual families and schools while overlooking Muslim community networks. This study examines why Muslim families in Kumamoto City are ‘getting by’ in securing school lunch accommodations but not ‘getting ahead’: why, despite an organised community centred around the Kumamoto Islamic Centre (KIC), parents continue negotiating individually rather than collectively. Drawing on interviews with Muslim parents and Japanese educators, the study employs a social capital framework distinguishing bonding, bridging, and linking capital. Families rely on co-ethnic bonding networks. Bridging capital within KIC has not been mobilised around halal because diversity of interpretation prevents a collective position from forming; without it, linking capital connecting the community to schools and authorities cannot develop. Three accommodation types are documented: an informal parent-led arrangement, a formalised shared-responsibility system (the ABCD system), and an institution-led full provision model. The ABCD system has the greatest potential for broader application. The study argues that the absence of a unified community position is a structural feature of how halal is practised in a diverse community, and that systemic improvement requires municipal frameworks that support school-level accommodation without presupposing collective consensus.