Despite Japan's geographical distance from the Middle East, the recent murder of Japanese journalist Kenji Goto by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) militants in February turned Japanese eyes toward the region. A negative perception of Islam may have started to increase among the Japanese public after this tragic incident. The chairman of the country's leading think-tank, Jiro Hanyu from the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, believes that this negative trend is temporary, and underlined that they are trying to do everything in their power to increase mutual understanding between the Japanese and Muslim communities.Speaking to Daily Sabah in their headquarters in Tokyo, Mr. Hanyu said that this incident is not related to Islam itself. Pointing out that there have been other Japanese journalists who lost their lives in the region in recent years, Mr. Hanyu said that these people were captured and kidnapped without consideration for their nationality. Describing the ISIS militants as extremists, he believes that these people don't represent Islam. "When we study Islam we see that Islam is a very tolerant and peaceful religion. Islam is a tolerant religion even compared to Christianity and Judaism." he added.According to Mr. Hanyu, Samuel Huntington's claim of a clash of civilizations was wrong. "In today's global world, we have witnessed a lot of interaction between different cultures and different ways of thinking and these differences may create a little bit of conflict. However, from my point of view, this is not a clash of civilizations, as Huntington claimed. Rather than a clash, this is a proximity of civilizations," he remarked.Mr. Hanyu believes that all the conflicts between different religions are mostly based on misunderstandings. "If we understand Islam and Muslim people correctly, we can deliver these messages to our societies and people's attitudes hopefully will change the right way," he said. In order to contribute in this field, the Sasakawa Foundation initiated an international forum called "the World Forum for Muslim Democrats" and their first meeting was held in Malaysia, in November 2014 with high level participation from Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia and Japan. Touching on the instability in the Middle East, Mr. Hanyu stressed that the U.S. invasion in Iraq is the main reason for the problem that the world is witnessing today in Iraq and Syria. Describing the Assad administration as "cruel," he also praised Turkey's open-door policy to the Syrian refugees, and suggested that the Japanese government should change its refugee policy to help the humanitarian crisis. "Japan has a very strict immigration policy and it's time to change it. In 30 years, our population will drop from 120 million to 80 million and this projection indicates that our nation will have to deal with a very serious problem of a lack of manpower. We should accept refugees from conflicted regions like Syria and start to solve this problem." he added.The chair of Japan's leading think-tank also considers Turkey's foreign policy successful. "In general, I believe that Turkish foreign policy in the Middle East is going in the right direction. In Egypt, Turkey supported the legitimately-elected Morsi government and it was the right thing to do. Elected governments should leave power only with elections. Therefore, a military coup in Egypt is unacceptable."Commenting on Turkish-Japanese relations, Mr. Hanyu said that Turkey and Japan are two of the few countries that overcame colonialism and imperialism and there have been always good relations between the two countries, based on mutual understanding and respect, and there are fields that need to be improved. "In spite of this friendship and respecting each other, due to geographical distance, we don't know much about each other. In this connection, the close relations between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is very important to overcome this distance. Relations between Abe and Erdoğan are good and I hope they will be developed further with bilateral relations." he further commented.Established in 1986, the Sasakawa Peace Foundation has supported activities designed to promote international exchange, cooperation, and understanding initiated by non-governmental organizations.