Abdullah Al Rushud

TOKYO: While the number of coronavirus cases in Japan are declining, preventative measures are still being taken in markets and mosques, with counter COVID-19 strategies taken for Japanese citizens and foreign nationals entering mosques.

Mosques are primarily used to pray. Islamic practice prescribes five praying sessions per day. Every day at the time of prayer, an azan (call to prayer) is called out from the mosque, with collective prayers held every day.

Some people read the Quran outside of their prayer time, while others take naps. When meeting Muslims, they sometimes say, “See you at the mosque,”  to one another and go straight to the mosque to talk. In places like Japan, where Muslims are a minority, mosques also serve as a place for Muslims to interact with each other, and it is through encounters at mosques that work relationships, friendships, and marriages form. Mosque are also places of community and connection for Muslims.

According to Mohamed Nazeer, Chairman of the As-Salam Mosque near Okachimachi Station in Tokyo, a new nine-storey mosque is being scheduled to be completed at the end of 2023 due to the increasing number of mosque visitors. He says the area is large enough for Muslims to pray, and the first floor will be devoted to a museum targeted at helping non-Muslims to learn about Islam.

The number of Muslims living in Japan is rapidly increasing, with an estimated 110,000 people as of 2010 (including 10,000 Japanese Muslims). The number of mosques (places of worship), which are indispensable to their daily lives, has increased since the mid-1990s, which was when the increase of Muslim immigrants began to stabilize. Now, there are nearly 100 mosques mainly in the three major metropolitan areas.