Day 22 — Muslim in Japan
As someone who is a Muslim and has been living in Japan for a few years now, I often get asked by my peers back home about my experience living and working in Japan while being a Muslim. The question usually goes, “Hey, you live in Japan, right? It must be hard for you to find a mosque!” or “So, have you tried sake yet? I heard everyone likes drinking and you must go drink on the weekend!”, or the most often asked “How do you even find halal food there? Do you eat anything now?”
On the other hand, a few of my friends/colleagues here in Japan are genuinely curious about the rules and restrictions a Muslim goes through. These are usually asked when Ramadan is coming, such as “I heard you have to fast from morning to evening; that must be hard!”, or “Why do you not eat pork?”, or a question from one of my closest friends “So you pray 5 times a day? What are you even asking for 5 times a day?”
This blog will try to answer both sides of the question. Hopefully, my friends back home can have a better understanding of living in Japan, and who knows, maybe they will come and live here and contribute to the Muslim community. At the same time, hopefully, my friends here can have a peek into the lives of their Muslim colleagues.
As a Muslim, here are the four aspects someone might like to know about living here:
1. Food / Groceries
2. Restaurants
3. Prayer / Mosque
4. Social life
Food / Groceries
In Islam, someone must strive to eat food that is halal (permitted). Halal foods are any food except:
- alcohol
- pork
- blood or carcass
- beasts (animals with fangs and claws)
- animal not processed in Islamic way (zabiha)
- any byproducts of the above items
In Muslim communities, these requirements are further standardized into halal certification. Anyone who wants their products to be deemed halal can apply for this certification and go through the check and confirmation steps, just like ISMS certification for IT Companies that want their product to be deemed secure.
As Japan does not have a predominantly Muslim community, there is no single authority that deals with halal certification, unlike traditional Muslim countries where their government creates a central authority for it. As such, Muslims in Japan often rely on a few homegrown halal authorities or else rely on imported products that have already gone through halal certification in their native country.
Now, where can one find such halal products in Japan? It might come as a surprise to some people, but nowadays, there are so many halal mom-and-pop shops all over the country. The majority of these shops are created by brothers and sisters from South Asia, such as Bangla, Pakistani, Indians, etc. One can simply search for “Halal Shops” on Google Maps, and more often than not, there will be one or two nearby, as long as you are in a reasonably urban environment.
Here is an example near Nishi-Kawaguchi in Saitama: there are 5 halal shops within walking distance from the station!
In these shops, one can find halal beef/mutton, halal chicken, and halal meat products such as nuggets, karaage, etc. For example, here’s a halal yakitori.
Another place that also sells a lot of halal products is Gyomu Super. People usually associate Gyomu Super with extremely cheap products. However the Muslim communities have recently taken notice that since they carry a lot of imported products from predominantly Muslim countries, they are now one of the most important supermarkets when it comes to halal products. Here is a halal tempe that you can find in any Gyomu Super, imported from Indonesia.
One thing to note is that a product does not have to be certified halal for it to be halal. That is why we still shop in other supermarkets, we just take our time to read the ingredients to confirm that it doesn’t contain any of the unpermissible items.
Restaurants
We take the same approach when it comes to choosing restaurants, where we try to find the ones that are halal. This usually means the shop will have a halal logo anywhere in the shop. Sometimes it’s written in the signage outside; sometimes, it’s on the menu; sometimes, you have to ask the employee whether the restaurant considers themselves halal. Here is an example of a halal kebab stand in Shibuya.
As with halal shops, there are also many halal restaurants everywhere nowadays. The most common type of halal restaurant in Japan is Turkish kebab stands, probably because kebabs are so popular here. The next most common are Indian restaurants, again created by brothers and sisters from South Asia. The next is probably Chinese Muslim restaurants, these are usually Lanzhou Lamian restaurants, Xinjiang restaurants, or Uighur restaurants. A bit rare but still reasonably everywhere are other types of restaurants, such as Udon/Soba, Ramen, Teishoku, Indonesian Food, Malaysian Food, etc.
And also, as with any other product, food in a restaurant does not have to be certified halal for it to be halal. As such, we will still go to other types of restaurants and try to look at those that mention their ingredients/allergens. Many chain restaurants often do, either on the menu or on their website, such as Saizeriya, coco’s, coco-ichi, sushi restaurants such as Sushiro or Hama-zushi, etc.
Prayer / Mosque
One of the pillars of Islam is to perform daily prayer 5 times a day. These 5 prayers are:
- Fajr (before dawn, around 4 to 5 AM)
- Dhuhr (afternoon, around 12 PM), or Juma (on Friday)
- Asr (late afternoon, around 3 PM)
- Maghrib (after sunset, around 6 PM)
- Isha (nighttime, around 8 PM)
We strive to perform all the daily prayers on time and without skipping. This teaches us to be disciplined while at the same time acting as a point of connection between God and us, to review what we are doing in life, and to strive to be a good Muslim and good citizen. We don’t necessarily have to ask for anything while doing the prayer, but it is recommended, as God loves when we depend on Him and ask Him for help.
In a professional setting, the Dhuhr, Asr, and Maghrib prayer can come in between our work duties. Fortunately, prayer can be performed anywhere on earth; it doesn’t have to be in a mosque. Here at HENNGE, we are passionate about diversity, and the company has allocated a room specifically to be used for prayer or meditation. My Muslim colleagues at HENNGE and I often use this room to perform the daily prayers, and we are forever glad that the company provides such a facility.
However, the Juma prayer on Friday must be performed in a mosque. Again, HENNGE has provided us with extra lunchtime on Friday for us to go to the Mosque, where we just have to cover for the extra time at the end of the day.
Speaking about mosques, similar to the halal shop and halal restaurant, we are seeing a sharp rise in the opening of new mosques all over Japan. Back in 1999, there were only 14 mosques in Japan. But based on the latest data in 2022, there are now 170 mosques all over Japan. That’s more than a tenfold increase just in the span of 20 years! There is even one right in the middle of Kabukicho!
It was also the case in my previous company, where they provided a room for prayer and allowed extra lunchtime on Fridays. As such, even though not all companies do, I would say that most companies in Japan are open to diversity, and if we explain the situation, they will likely try their best to accommodate us.
Social Life
Socializing is a very important aspect of living in Japan. Otherwise, the closed nature of the society can lead to the feeling of anxiety and loneliness. I certainly felt so the first couple years of my life in Japan. However, social life in Japan does involve a lot of alcohol. People love going to Izakaya, not necessarily for the alcohol, but just for socializing or getting closer to their colleagues.
In my previous company, I often went to Izakaya with my colleagues on the weekend / Friday, once a month, or once every two months. Fortunately, you don’t necessarily have to order alcohol in Izakaya. There are a lot of soft drink options on the menu. So that’s what I did in the first few years of living here. However, I can see the trend that people are going to izakaya less and less. Especially now in my thirties, not many of my colleagues go to Izakaya anymore, or at least not as often.
On the other hand, there are many other ways to socialize in Japan. For example, I used to join a badminton meetup group where we regularly held a session once or twice a week. I used to come to those sessions religiously, and the friends there are some of the closest friends I have in Japan.
My advice to fellow Muslims living in Japan is to have an open mind and try our best to accustom to the local way of life while still following the teachings of Islam. I believe there is a right balance, and with the number of Muslims increasing steadily year by year, Japanese society is also slowly adapting to coexist with their Muslim neighbors and colleagues.
Check out other 2023 HENNGE Advent Calendar articles here.
