New Japan, Old Japan / Mobile mosque takes ‘omotenashi’ everywhere

[rangerrebew]

 
   
New Japan, Old Japan / Mobile mosque takes ‘omotenashi’ everywhere
 

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Muslims who live in Japan prepare to pray at a mobile mosque in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, on Sept. 23. It takes only a few minutes after parking for the back of a truck to expand sideways into a prayer room.

5:31 pm, October 08, 2018

By Ryuzo Suzuki / Yomiuri Shimbun Senior PhotographerA “mobile mosque” was unveiled in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, in late September, with Muslim residents of the Kanto region coming to say their prayers. Capable of being sent anywhere, this mosque on wheels was created with an eye on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, as well as other international events that will be held in Japan.

The mosque looks like an ordinary truck, about 12 meters long and about 2.5 meters wide when it drives on the road. Within several minutes of parking, the sides expand to the right and left, rendering the truck about six meters wide. The vehicle has now become a 48-square-meter prayer room that can accommodate more than 50 people at once.

http://www.the-japan-news.com/news/article/0004868559

[Fishrrman]

From the source article:
“There were very few places for worship for Muslims and they had to avoid people’s attention when I came to Japan 30 years ago,” said Sandha Saleem, a visitor to the mosque who is from Pakistan and currently living in Adachi Ward, Tokyo. “The number of prayer rooms has gradually increased in Japan, but even today, there aren’t many. So mobile mosques like this will make Muslims visiting Japan feel at home,” he said after prayers at the mosque.

I sense that Japan has limited and restricted the building of mosques there.
A very good policy.