Arab News Japan

HYOGO: A long-awaited Arabic pita bread bakery ‘The Babylon Bakery’ opened it’s doors on Friday in Nishiwaki, western Japan.

“Many Middle Eastern and Mediterranean Muslims live in the neighboring cities of Kobe, Miki, Osaka as well as lots of other parts of Japan,” the bakery owner, Iraqi-born Haithem Humadi told Arab News Japan.

“I hope they will be able to experience pita bread, which is just like the one in their hometown,” he said.

The project was established after seven years of planning with great care taken to produce an authentic taste.

He imported the Syrian-designed pita bread manufacturing machine from Turkey. At the beginning, he is going to produce 300 kilograms a day, but the machine has so much capacity of 5 tonnes of bread per day.

However, the foreign technicians who are capable of maintaining these machines cannot come to Japan at present due to COVID restrictions, and Humadi himself is busily working.

“The Babylon Bakery” will mainly deal with businesses such as halal shops and restaurants throughout Japan, although individuals will be able to buy online.

Humadi commented: “We posted on Facebook and Twitter only last week and received more than 200 responses in five days from Tokyo, Nagoya, Hiroshima and other regions not only the people from overseas residing in Japan, but also Japanese.”