Joe Tomei here, sharing a post from Andrew Mitchell on a publication he co-authored. Unfortunately, it is behind a paywall, but if you are interested, I'm sure he can provide you with an author's copy

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09555803.2026.2689944

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I'm pleased to share a new publication that I've co-authored with my colleague, Florian Axt:
Getting by but not getting ahead: Muslim families, community networks, and school lunch accommodations in Kumamoto City, Japan.
Our article explores how Muslim families in Kumamoto navigate school lunch accommodations and asks an important question: why do parents continue negotiating with schools individually, despite the presence of an organised local Muslim community?
Using interviews with Muslim parents and Japanese educators, we argue that the answer lies not simply in institutional willingness, but in the structure of community networks themselves. While strong bonding ties exist within the national and ethnic communities that make up Kumamoto's wider Muslim community, the diversity of halal interpretations makes it difficult to establish a shared position that could be communicated collectively to schools or local government.
Rather than seeing this as a failure of community organisation, we argue that it is a structural feature of a diverse community. This has important implications for policy: effective accommodation should not depend on communities speaking with a single voice. Instead, municipalities should develop frameworks that allow schools to respond flexibly to individual needs while providing clear institutional support.
The paper also identifies three different models of school lunch accommodation currently operating in Kumamoto, including one that we believe has strong potential for wider application.
Many thanks to the Muslim families, educators, and community members who generously shared their experiences and made this research possible.