Being Muslim in Japan

hello I'm Barno from Uzbekistan I've been living in Japan for four and a half years I decided to write to you to suggest a new video idea many Muslims are concerned what it is like to live in Japan was the Japan is a Muslim friendly country and how Muslims are treated here Highbar no perhaps you could tell me more about what the video would be about what would you say what would you show Cheers Gregg in my opinion the video should include three important points first Japanese people's attitude towards Islam and Muslims second halal food in Japan third working in a Japanese company as a practicing Muslim high bar no I know it's been a while I hope you're still game for making a video together I have time to shoot this month if you and your husband have availability Cheers Thanks so Barnell um you wrote an email to me many emails you said if you know about Islam you're probably familiar with its requirements and restrictions but before meeting you I didn't really know anything so what are the things about Japan that would make or provide challenges for Muslims living here or visiting here okay first talking about some of the basic requirements its praying 5 times visiting mosque every Friday eating halal food not drinking alcohol wearing hijab for females and in Japan many of these basic points are quite challenging so what are you making I'm making mu but it's not I it doesn't have a name it's just a bunch of vegetables and I fry them all together but it's not traditional you spec move so this is a vegetarian you are very mature you can make it vegetarian as well like sometimes I cook it without me but today I'm going to use chicken from them chicken I got from Joe they always satisfied hello meat you can see and are you not gonna introduce me to your husband yeah Shahrazad yes I've been behind the camera the whole time I am sure sod I'm also from Pakistan I've been living in Japan for the past six years as a Muslim [Music] for living we also do YouTube we'll have a channel she does YouTube I do YouTube that's what we do for living it's quite fun hello it's permissible it means so how about food means food that you can eat you are permitted to eat by the way we're trying to consume this meat for the past three years because that's what the Prophet peace be upon him did not anything except for is halal people believe if you can eat enemy except pork but any animal that haven't been slaughtered or that had been slaughtered for other than God it would mean even a chicken sheep beef they would all be non-halal if they hadn't been killed in the proper manner fish is generally what saves us in most situations so whenever we cannot find halal food we usually go to eating fish would be hello yes that's another safe area that saves us usually almost all meals in inspector are in one pot like you cook in one so what so usually you just have your one dish if you go and tell those big people give me your food they will give you this the primary problem that we face as a Muslim is to find halal food because Japan is largely a non Muslim country if I want to eat out I look for how our restaurants so sometimes it's quite inconvenient this place offers ramen which is traditional Japanese food and you can taste it here and without worrying about its ingredients because it's how our certified and also on the second floor they have prayer room this corner is a special place for praying but it's very tiny but better than nothing ok so this place is closed in Japan I need to check it all the time the ingredients for example if I wanna buy ready food from convenience store or some supermarkets I need to go through the ingredients we are now in shin-okubo station very close station is just 25 meters from here and a lot of halal shops and let's try to enter this one excuse me we are making a video about how long shops in Japan is it okay to film inside the shop thank you so this is one of the shops where you can find a lot of halal products there are halal meat as well it says it's from Brazil yes hello also a lot of foreigners come here to shop for different spices that you cannot find in Japanese stores different kinds of sauces that also can be not halal in typical Japanese supermarkets if you buy because they they might have alcohol or shortenings but here you don't have to worry about that is the middle also how long bar no safe yeah I always check for sign if they don't have sign I asked the owner or someone who's working there whether it's halal or not and some say oh it's chicken it's hell out I don't trust them because some Muslims think that if it's chicken if as long as it's not pork its Hollow so I tried to find that sign and it's way I can find I wanted to study in an international university and when I was searching for universities I found one in Japan and that happened to be rhythmic and Asia Pacific University and because of scholarship I was able to come here because I wanted to study in Japan the university it had nothing to do with religion I came here and I loved the country so much that after graduation I just decided to stay here and it's become more like my own country to me where if I go back to his biggest and the country where I come from I would be missing Japan a lot it is obligatory for all Muslims to pray five times a day before prayer every Muslim needs to cleanse themselves and purify their bodies and that's what we call evolution the most basics of evolution are that you must wash your hands you must wash your face and you must wash your feet before you pray and make sure that you are clean to pray now I'm allowed to pray so there's a tradition from the Prophet peace be upon him where he says every time you wash your hands if we spill every drop of water will wash your sins once you do ablution once you clean your body as long as you don't go to the bottle it means you still have evolution although so it shows the direction of the cabin the city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia the cube-shaped structure towards which every Muslim faces while they're paying and it says the prayer for after the time until the other player is in 50 seconds now in most Muslim houses there's usually a separate space for people to make ablution before the prayer when I'm at home I don't very heat up and I'm usually in not in motor schools so when I pray I use this clothes for praying and it's very convenient just put on quickly it's a big big site it covers my whole body then I use my cap we Muslims always wear a cap on our head just like the Jews do before brain so this is the Sunnah he's not actually mandatory to pray this it's not only directly from God but that's what we prayed so far is half the prayer but it's sooner because we do it because the Prophet peace be upon him did it every time before praying he prayed even more what we are going to pray together now is called fun it's the obligatory in mandatory prayer that God directly ordered us in the Quran and that's why when people pray fun together they do it in a group more like the hands in the movements of the body will be in Sunday when I came out of the wall I said every waking second lost lost along with this so which is directly ordered from God is finished yeah the symbolic meaning of frustration which we call Saturday to win Saturday is that you submit to the will of God and the symbolic meaning of leaving the prayer which is to give greetings to both sides is there is an understanding in Islam that on both shoulders there is two angels who record who are responsible for recording your actions during your life and the inside of the heart the intentions will be just by God so you're saying that you don't actually need the pair Roger that's clean yes so why are you you actually don't need this pretty Iraq you can pray wherever it's clean to pray so we use this just because it has become a habit to us I mean from an Islamic perspective it would be quite incomprehensible to to have no time for prayer because time is something that you give is a matter of priority there's nothing else that's more beloved to God than those prayers so they have number-one priority most people have the idea that a prayer must be create at a certain time but it's more about the movement of the Sun in the moon it's more of an astronomical phenomenon so when the Sun comes to a certain point it's time that you must pray one prayer but it doesn't mean that you must pray it at that moment for example if the time for what we call doha comes it one it can last all the way until five or four depending on the season so you have three or four hours to be able to catch that in a place like Japan when it's time to pray the midday prayer we always struggle to find a place and we end up praying on the street we always carry with ourselves a prayer rug we put it and we pray on top of it but it's also good news that increasingly Japan is recognizing this need that Muslims have so they're facilitating contrary to the expectations of many there are mosques in Japan this looks a very regular building but if you go inside there is a mosque for Muslim people to pray and here you can see message it which means mosque on the fourth floor on other floors there are different salons and other kinds of businesses but you can enter this room it's a praying room okay so it's not kind of mosque like you you usually see because mosques usually have special architecture design but this is just a building and it's used to pray so we can also call it mosque I feel very safe like whenever I see this kind of places I just enter and pray I don't look for people to ask permission because this place is for praying so I don't have to worry I can just enter and pray yeah no one is here you get more rewards if you pray as a group so I assume that they all come at a certain time that's why right now there is no one here have you heard about good deeds like people try to do so the more good deeds you do the better for you right and there are also some small actions that you may think that's not something good that you are doing but for example smiling to another person is also one way of good deeds for not smiling is but if you smile when people are praying for example just like I did now yeah we are reading the verses of the Quran oh that's just the recitation of it yes is it always the same like for the same time of day no you can choose any what happens if you can't remember there's no way you can't remember though at least one right I don't know I forgot he's all the time no yeah yeah imagine forgetting something you recite five times a day what smells nice maybe you use something you have to you have to use what yeah perfume really well coming to the mosque I did not know that are you serious it's not a rule it's not an obligation but you are in it's like just like somebody I do not have that just like somebody you have to wear you know sort of perfume but if you must smell nice good so because you are always standing right and when the mosques are so crowded it's like I'm always singing like this on Friday praise when we go we spin like this Yeah right there is no not enough space and when people are touching each other this close you have to smell good I see and we use this usually also this is special this is called Musk this is what Muslims is yeah v1f we need to go to the basement IKEA vara is one of the famous places in Tokyo a lot of tourists come here for shopping especially electronics are very popular there are so many stores and when they come here it's very good to have such a prayer room because it's quite inconvenient to pray in the streets it's very crowded part of Tokyo so I'm very happy that they have a special place for Muslims to pray so now there is no one here two people can pray oh there are more prayer much I think three people can fit in some pray praying places or Massachusetts you can see this kind of clothes this is for wadies you need to have a long dress or something which is not showing your body shape so you need to be in a modest clothes when pray Muslims all have to go to the mosque on Fridays that's not something optional that's in obligatory act of prayer welcome to the biggest mosque in Japan in Tokyo which is the Turkish army mosque in every mosque there is a tower the purpose of which is to call people to prayer before the player here notes this is just to show the tradition so this is the corner where they have put special books for those who love reading they can come so the first book that Muslims regard is the highest is the Quran and then these collections of the Prophet peace be upon him here we have the halal shop inside the mosque and restroom where they where Muslims can cleanse themselves before the prayer all the products in this market you can see our branded challah okay this is the halal sign this is an import from Turkey where is yes where is this one is Japanese Wagyu Allah why you I don't know because I told you in Malaysia in most Muslim countries they burned everything even water with hot outside but even this one there is also a halal sign it would never be not allowed this pre Iraq is very interesting in that it's foldable and it easily fits into your pocket and it shows the direction of the Kaaba it's the men's restroom where they make dough as you can see there are special seats to facilitate the making our dough and these are placed so that Muslims have no problem washing their feet along what we just witnessed is the Friday prayer of Muslims before the prayer Imam gave a small sermon in four languages Arabic Japanese Turkish and English so that everybody in the audience could understand what the man was saying after the sermon we started praying the two mandatory because of Juma prayer everybody followed the Imam who is the leader of the Muslim prayer a raka consists of standing and going to frustration and after the prayer was over everybody went downstairs to have a nice meal together it's encouraged that after the prayer free food is distributed to the people who came to pray and so that they could form a bond to create a sense of community and it's also encouraged by the Prophet peace be upon him to give food to feed people when they're hungry one of the nice things living in Japan is a Muslim is the fact that I personally get to experience the global communal feeling living in Japan is more like living in Mecca in the sense that in Mecca Muslims come together to experience not only the prayer and closeness to God but also the communal feeling global communal feeling being together with Muslims from all different countries my name is Yogi and you're from I am from Indonesia and I'm teaching here for about three years this mosque is built by Indonesian people in Japan actually this mosque is built in the government area but people of Indonesia they rest the fun for built this mosque so if you can find yeah sure Pakistani mosque or Indian people are turkey mosque is okay for us every mosque is different this one just had to be fit into the available space I think that's why since we have to face Mecca it was made diagonal like this standing just in this position we are facing the city of Mecca mosques are not only meant to be places of worship but also places of study so you can take any one of them and read here each mosque has a specific purpose of putting these boxes for donation some output so that they can maintain the mosque this one is meant for building more mosques in Japan the money donated into this box will be given out to those people who are in need so zakat in Islam is one of the five obligatory requirements like ad means those who reach a certain threshold in financial terms they will be obligated to give 140th of their wealth to those in need every year yes in some parts of Japan where Muslims are not that many there is usually not single mosque in those cases we just couldn't go to a mosque and pray at home or pray well wherever we can pray when it's time to pray my name is chinchilla and I'm from China and I came to Japan around three years ago and currently I work in a traditional trading company in Japan one year after I came to Japan become a Muslim so you can also call me is my which is my religious name which I like a lot Salaam alaikum and good evening and peace be unto you everyone my name is Matt Moreno and my given name as Japanese now okey my you know I embrace Islam when I was at the age of eighteen it's been 26 years now so now you know my age I've been working in Japanese oil and gas exploration company and in my private time voluntarily I'm teaching outside for adults and kids about Islam and so on and here in this center of Japan Muslim Association I'm one of the five Imams I think the first thing you have to pay attention to is you have to really know it's Japanese culture they know you're a Muslim they respect your culture but you're just doing your the things that you like without any consideration of how other people will think and then they will cause some problems it is the matter of communication skill so if you could explain beforehand that you are in need of you know praying or whatever they would allow you before I started working in that company I I talked with the CEO and he actually knows a lot about Muslim people in Japan because he used to work with Indonesian like he doesn't know much about the religion but knows that we are different but we need to pray we need to fast so he had that knowledge so he was more accepting during the interview they asked me about my religion and I directly told them on the spot that I'm a Muslim and that I needed a praying space in a company so could you please provide praying you know Ariel for me and is it okay we'll think about that and after discussion this it it's okay so like what I have now I have a prayer room what theoretical is a prayer room it is just a one of the meeting rooms in vacants meeting rooms or in the corridors of the you know stairs we Muslims can pray anywhere except the dirty places so we can manage it the challenging point was making evolution because I didn't know what to do when I was in need of washing my foot so I was just praying to God oh please no one should come because if someone comes and see me washing my foot would be very strange-looking and they would surprise what are you doing you're watching your foot fot that was challenging but after coming up with the idea of using the toilet papers sponge that made that thing easier um it takes less than 20 minutes each time and if you want to do it if you want to shorten the period of time I think around 10 minutes you can close a prayer and the first time is during the lunch break I definitely I pray and if all the conditions are fine we'll pre another time at around like 3 or 4 p.m. and it depends on the sunset time so maybe there's a chance that I will do my third prayer at around 5:00 p.m. or something it depends on the season one of the thing that I want to say is during the Ramadan is quite difficult and everybody is drinking and eating lounge food besides me while I'm the only one who doesn't drink at all if you know what I mean because it's for God is for Ramadan and if they will ask why you are doing this while you're doing that in this period of time I don't consume any food and water yes it's kind of difficult but as Muslim we have strong faith innings you know in your heart so actually it is the difficulty that we experience that we will treasure the water and the resource of this planet more I think for lunchtime I had to eat in the office with everybody so the meal was provided by the company and they also considered to my food restrictions so they were always cooking the separate meal for me without pork and without alcohol without different shortenings yeah that was also very convenient for me some days I was informed by the person who is in charge of meals I cannot cook a special meal today so can you bring your own then I will have to bring by myself what I used to do is to join the Norma Chi without drinking any alcohol and people around me will be like no me enorme which means drink this drink this and I was like I'm sorry I'm a Muslim and then they would be like cute again o mio like just drink today I was like I'm sorry don't do this to me but I can't enjoy I feel happy if I we shared the time or share the happiness together but there's a bad mama I don't drink so please but every time like no matter how many times I try to explain this to them they still ask me to drink so much until like one that I thought okay this is overwhelming I'm gonna drop this so I just don't go to any no Mekhi it's a problem actually I would definitely I will lose some chance of getting more connection and interaction with my coworkers that's why I was I tried to I don't know it's a problem actually I'm thinking how should I get over with this I'm stuck in this sense I think one of my personal on suffering that I met was this so during Ramadan I always wanted to have this on the top of my head as a religion religious gesture and this once I tried publicly and I got shouted by my boss and he told me it's okay if you can pray and you do all this religiously related stuff in that prayer room don't be like this publicly in the company and I was like okay sure so since there's a problem so I have to drop this in the treating company I think your supplier wall gets so shocked because sometimes they just give you random visit if you are in this status I think the whole business meeting will be ruined often the case Japanese is it's becoming different but they tends to make clear difference between having faith in private places and public day tends to see having faith is something private difficulties for yourself I'm sorry I have to correct you is not difficulty because like I don't find it difficult your question is how I came to become a Muslim right people don't talk religiously in China I felt empty inside as something wrong like this emptiness made me to search more information and finally I got some chance to know and to learn about Islam to be short I think Islam is the correct path for me to follow and at the same time I feel so much peaceful inside I think that's one of the reasons that a lot like Japan a lot because it's totally religion free I mean they respect all the religions so they're fine with that actually there are two types of foreigners who work in Japan one type is like me I was trying I'm trying so hard to understand how Japanese people think and I adjust myself into that kind of you know stereotype I was trying my best to of course I'm a Muslim but I behave like a Japanese that's how you gain their trust but there are some there is another type of Muslims in Japan they work in the company but they are behaving like so foreigner and amicus is not it's it's not the case so I was trying to follow my religion at the same time I was trying to immerse myself into the Japanese culture so I think the first you respect Japanese culture and then they will do the same things back to you you really have to focus on your work once you have some good like let's say positive performance in your job for example in treating company if your sale reach the seasonal goal they all think okay he's a Muslim it doesn't matter because you know we reach our goal so this is a way finish your task professionally to gain the trust and respect even you are a Muslim just don't you know screw up with your work fundamental rules right I have felt that people treated me differently not because I'm a Muslim just because of the fact that I'm a foreigner just in cases where I have to pray outside people who are passing by would give a very surprised look because they wouldn't have a clue as to what we are doing because they wouldn't know the Muslim prayer that could be the reaction but other than that there is no discrimination I have faced yeah in general Japanese people always try to be like polite and considerate current situation is a lot different and easy and better for the sake of Muslims because the society is welcoming you know welcoming the thoughts of diversity and you know some Japanese people are trying to accommodate Muslim needs by providing truck mosques trucks that would expand into a room and become a place of worship it might be a particular different challenge since I am Muslim from Japan and when I compare that with the Muslims from outside of Japan why you know there are double standard treatment when they treat with Japanese it is one thing and when they treat with others it's a foreigners it's another thing so for example at the times of defusing drinking alcohol if I was from outside of Japan they would accept it easily no because you know you know you come from China we respect you but since they you know they know that I do look like Japanese so they know me Japanese and then the you know two decades before they were likely to ask me aren't you Japanese so in public I don't really get strange stares or people reacting in some way to my hijab in Japan I think because of the nature of Japanese people they usually don't stare at people they don't want to put them in an comfortable state so I never faced any difficulty or inconvenience now they're getting used to it but it's not the same with other parts of Japan in countryside areas there are many people who would be surprised in cannot hide their surprise and in my workplace for example also I used to get asked questions like why do I vary it and sometimes even strange questions like do I go into shower with it or do I sleep visit one day my co-workers were asking me can I take off my hijab just once they were like very close to me and I don't know for me it was a bit awkward I also understand them they don't fully understand Islam and why we do certain things and why it's important to us and how important it is for us so in Islam it's obligatory to vary hijab and women in Islam are supposed to cover the hair and parts of their body and dress modestly so I try to do that that helps me to feel close to God and have feel the connection because in this world in this modern days it's very easy to be distracted with many other things and forget about your religion your main priorities in life I very key job when I'm in public and when I'm with people who are outside of my family for example if it's my father or mother my browser siblings my husband I can be without hitch happens yeah completely fun but when I go out or when I'm around with other people I wear hijab one important thing that I forgot is with females it's totally fine yeah don't be afraid and be relaxed enjoy because it's a lot easier then you might be expecting thank God that at least not yet we don't have Islamophobia here in this society so no one would show you any stones or whatever when you come here when you walk on the contrary even from the government side they do welcome a lot the you know the guests from outside Japan now is very welcome to Muslim so don't worry to come to Japan what most Muslims should know about life in Japan and living in Japan is a Muslim is that it's extremely comfortable to live as a Muslim even more so than many Muslim countries the reason I say that is because I don't see any restrictions on practicing my religion living in Japan is a Muslim we have mosques we have halal food and there is a large Muslim community actually we can hang out but we can talk to so I think we feel quite comfortable living in Japan is a Muslim nobody cares if you wear a hijab nobody cares if you pray as long as you don't mess up you don't screw anything as long as you are following and obeying the same rules is the Japanese society there is more freedom and one of the reasons why I personally feel comfortable living in Japan is our Prophet peace be upon him he himself said the reason I was sent to this world is too perfect traits of character so he meant my aim is not to make people pray or do this or do that the purpose of this religion is to make people beautify themselves through beautifying their character and just like a person can have certain set of vices and virtues society as a whole can have vices and virtues so I find a lot of virtues that are commended in Islam in the Japanese society that's why it feels to me living in Japan Japan is more Islamic than more many Muslim countries and what you know I got another email from Bono and so what happened is I sent her and Shahzad a draft of the video because it's a subject I know virtually nothing about and I wanted to make sure that I presented it correctly not edit it for like bad things or anything like that or censor stuff just make sure I didn't put some terms down that were incorrect but anyways she had this to say we feel like we were a bit remiss in showing or expressing how thankful we are to Japan and the Japanese people in general for their largely welcoming and respectful attitude towards Muslims if you could add a sentence in your own words in the conclusion of your video telling your audience how grateful we are to Japan and the Japanese people we would appreciate it well consider it done you did it yourself do you think it's fun to talk about my youtube channel in which I honestly just check out her channel and you'll know how much her and Shahzad really love Japan oh you're here I will see okay so should I walk pretending that I'm not seeing okay

Channel: Life Where I'm From

Views: 1,686,441

Rating: 4.8059969 out of 5

Keywords: muslim japan, islam japan, mosque tokyo

Id: BO5_aD2J9GM

Length: 42min 54sec (2574 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 15 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Notareditor]

I just want to be Muslim in Japan.

[u/ErdoganTheCorrupt]

Brother Shinzo approves

[u/shadowq8]

I have been to that masjid in Japan, it was pretty nice. I remember it was open to the public had some visitors.