More and More Halal Food Is Emerging in the Japanese Market

In a modest 70-year-old restaurant in a northern city about a two-hour drive from Tokyo, owner Dainari Goka is serving steaming bowls of ramen and Japanese gyoza.

These dishes use Halal meat and Halal chicken as the ramen broth base, and use soy products and vegetables to replace the pork in ordinary gyoza.

Forty-year-old Mr. Goka is the third-generation owner of the Nikkoken restaurant in Sano City, and has been providing friendly service for Muslim dining since 2000.

In a recent interview with The Straits Times, he said: 'I met an African drummer from Guinea who was in town, and he asked me what Muslims could eat. This made me begin to realize what I was interested in, which for me is foreign cultures and religions.'

He now offers two menus - the ordinary Japanese menu and a Muslim menu - and uses different tableware and utensils to prepare Halal meals.

He serves at least 1,000 Muslim customers each year from countries such as Indonesia, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, who have all left various marks on the message notes on the walls of Mr. Goka's restaurant.

Businesses Are Working Harder to Cater to Muslim Travelers

When Ms. Khamisah Salamat first visited Japan decades ago, she said it was difficult to eat Halal food because Japan 'did not seem to have any Muslim restaurants.'

'But Japan has changed a lot now,' said the 50-year-old Singaporean, now a Japan specialist at the Singapore boutique travel agency X-Trekkers.

Ms. Khamisah, who now speaks fluent Japanese, has visited 47 regions of Japan, customizing travel packages for Muslim customers.

Several travel agencies also regularly offer Muslim-friendly packages for travel to Japan to facilitate Muslim travel. For example, the Chan brothers have three more trips planned to Okinawa this year, while the Muslim organization Shahidah Travel will run an 8-day Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka tour next month.

Ms. Khamisah has also collaborated with local and global agencies to create Japan travel packages. She has 27 years of experience in the travel industry and once worked at the Japanese agency JTB.

She told The Straits Times that businesses have begun to realize the needs of Muslim customers and are doing more to meet these requirements.

She gave an example of a mountaintop hut on a 1,984-meter-high mountain summit in Yamagata Prefecture in northeastern Japan, which once sought her advice on how to take care of Muslim customers.

For independent Muslim travelers, there are Halal Japanese restaurants with ramen and yakiniku (grilled meat) dishes.

Ms. Khamisah said: 'My friends always say they think it would be hard... it might be hard to eat only salad, salad, and more salad during a seven-day trip.' However, she added: 'But traveling in Japan is not difficult for Muslims.'

The restaurant of Walter Sim is one of many businesses under his name, including hotels and karaoke shops, spanning Japan's rural areas and international metropolises, and increasingly catering to Muslim customers, as Japan also sees more and more Muslim residents and tourists.

It is estimated that the number of Muslim tourists for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics will reach 1 million.

The latest data from the Japan National Tourism Organization shows that the number of Muslim tourists from Muslim countries is growing.

In the first nine months of this year, there were 249,800 tourists from Malaysia, an increase of 33.4% over the same period last year, while Indonesian tourists grew by 27.7%, reaching 184, for the same period.