Mosque on wheels unveiled to help muslims tourists pray on time

This mlsques on wheels will be used by Muslim tourists who will be visiting Japan, (Courtesy)

TOKYO—A Japanese company has created a mosque on wheels that its head hopes will make Muslim visitors feel at home during the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

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

Yasuharu Inoue, the CEO of the Yasu Project, which is the company behind the Mobile Mosque, described the project as an effort to ensure Muslim visitors have adequate facilities to pray during the Olympics. Inoue expressed concern that Japan did not have enough mosques to accommodate Muslim visitors.

“As an open an hospitable country, we want to share the idea of omotenashi (hospitality) with Muslim people,” Inoue, who held a press briefing to showcase the Mobile Mosque on Monday, stated.

“Going forward, I would be so happy if people from Indonesia, Malaysia, Africa, the Middle East and, for example, refugees who are coming from Syria are able to use the mosque as a tool to promote world peace,” Inoue added.

Guests praying inside the mosque, (Courtesy)

Between 100,000 and 200,000 Muslims live in Japan, a country of  with a population of 127.6 million people.

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

South Korea, which hosted the 2018 Winter Olympics, had proposed a similar initiative but never completed a facility to cater to Muslim tourists.

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.