By: Sameen Ahmed Khan

Recently, I was in Tokyo the capital of Japan to participate in the 24th Congress of the International Commission for Optics held during 21-25 August 2017. During the brief visit, I had the privilege to visit two mosques in Tokyo. This enabled me to interact with the Muslim Community comprising of both locals and immigrants/visitors. Before reaching the Masajid, I relied on the website http://www.qiblaway.com/ to know the Quibla (direction of Kabah) to perform the Salaat (prayers). Muslims constitute a very small minority in Japan. In this article, I shall outline my experience in Japan along with some historical notes.

The history of Islam in Japan is recorded in isolated documents. The oldest records mentioning Japan in this context are that of the celebrated Persian geographer Abu’l-Qasim Ubaydallah ibn Abdallah ibn Khordadbeh (820-912 CE). He is also known as Ibn Khordadbeh and Ibn Khurradadhbih. In the years 846/847, Ibn Khordadbeh wrote Kitāb al Masālik w’al Mamālik (The Book of Roads and Kingdoms). This encyclopedic work covers the vast geographic areas now including: South Asia, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Koreas and Japan.

Leaping into the modern times, we note that the first mosque was built in Japan in the city of Kobe. The Kobe Mosque was built in 1935 with the contributions of Indian, Tatar and Japanese financial support. In the year 1938, the capital Tokyo had its first mosque, which is known as the Tokyo Camii or the Tokyo Mosque. This was the second Masjid of Japan and was built by Tatar migrants escaping the Russian revolution. The Tokyo Masjid was rebuilt by the Presidency of Religious Affairs of Turkey in the year 2000. These two Masajid were the principle mosques in Japan till the 1970’s. Now, there are over two hundred mosques across Japan. The Muslim population in Japan is estimated to be about two hundred thousand. This is to be compared with the total population of Japan, which is 126 million. There are over a dozen meanings (translations) of the complete Holy Quran in Japanese, dating from 1920.

For my visit to the mosques, I had to choose from of over a dozen Masajid in Tokyo. The name of Daar Al-Arqam caught my attention due to its name and landmark significance in the early Meccan period (before the Hijrat/ Migration of the Holy Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam to Madinah). It is to be recalled that the Dar Al-Arqam (House of Arqam) served as the centre as there was no Mosque in Makkah Mukarramah at that time. The Holy Prophet (PBUH) used to meet his Companions at Dar Al-Arqam and teach them the essential tenets of Islam. The Companions used the Dal Al-Arqam to perform the prayers in secret fearing wrath of the non-believers in Makkah Mukarramah. Coming back to the Japan, the Daar Al-Arqam is located in the locality of Asakusa. Hence this Masjid is also known as the Asakusa Masjid/Mosque (http://www.icoj.org/) and is not far from the well-connected Asakusa Metro Station. It was founded in 1992 by the Islamic circle of Japan. Like most Japanese Masajid, Daar Al-Arqam is multistoried with one floor exclusively for the ladies. And as expected the Masjid had a good library.