Going mobile

Company unveils mosque on wheels to welcome Muslims in Japan.

TOKYO: As Japan prepares to host visitors from around the world for the 2020 Summer Olympics, a Tokyo sports and cultural events company has created a mosque on wheels that its head hopes will make Muslim visitors feel at home.

Yasuharu Inoue, the CEO of Yasu Project, said the possibility that there might not be enough mosques for Muslim visitors in 2020 is alarming for a country that considers itself part of the international community.

His Mobile Mosques could travel to different Olympic venues as needed.

“As an open and hospitable country, we want to share the idea of ‘ omotenashi’ (Japanese hospitality) with Muslim people,” he said.

The first Mobile Mosque was unveiled earlier this week outside Toyota Stadium, a J-League soccer venue in Toyota City, which is also the headquarters of the car company with the same name.

The back of the modified 25-tonne truck flipped up to reveal an entrance and then the side slid out, doubling the width of the truck. The 48sq-m room can accommodate 50 people.

Muslim guests prayed inside the mosque, which includes outdoor taps and an area for ablutions.

Indonesian students who were victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami also took part in the debut ceremony.

“The Mobile Mosque is very important to Muslims, Japanese people or tourists who visit Japan,” said 14-year-old Nur Azizah.

An estimated 100,000 to 200,000 Muslims live in Japan.

Tatsuya Sakaguchi, a Japanese guest, expressed hope that the Mobile Mosque would help open people’s minds worldwide.

“Looking in from the outside at the people in the mosque, they looked very happy,” said Sakaguchi, the representative director of an Osaka retail company.

Inoue said the inspiration for the project came to him on a trip to Qatar four years ago.

Initially, the project organisers planned to target international sporting events in Japan and overseas. Inoue hopes “the project will do more than fill a gap in religious infrastructure.

“I would be so happy if people from Indonesia, Malaysia, Africa, the Middle East and, refugees coming from Syria are able to use the mosque as a tool to promote world peace,” he said. — AP