Muslim Visitors Seek Halal Food in Japan

Halal Navi, a search app that helps Muslims find local halal restaurants, carried out a questionnaire survey over a one-year period from February 2023, aimed at their app users and other Muslims who were interested in Japan. The survey received 1,581 valid responses and when asked about the concerns they had regarding eating and dining in Japan, 86% (1,361 people) expressed that they were worried “whether restaurants and food shops provided halal food or not.” The second largest concern for 1,231 people was “whether they could get halal food products at supermarkets and grocery stores.”

Respondents were also asked what kinds of Japanese food they liked and wanted to eat in Japan. Overall, nearly 90% (1,388 people) answered “halal ramen.” This was followed by halal varieties of “sushi,” “sukiyaki,” and “udon.” Among the ramen shops that people had either visited or wanted to visit, Ichiran and Halal Mentei Naritaya were mentioned. Ichiran is well-known for its tonkotsu ramen, which traditionally uses a pork bone-based broth, but at its Nanba Midōsuji branch, ramen is served using a chicken bone-based broth instead. While it does not have halal certification, no pork or alcohol is used in the preparation. Naritaya is halal-certified.

The main problems that many people encountered at their accommodation in Japan included “halal food was not provided” and “there was no place to pray.” Along with it being difficult to get halal-certified food in Japan, in many cases it is also expensive, leading to respondents asking for “halal food to be made available in convenience stores” and that they “would like there to be more halal-certified restaurants outside of large metropolitan areas.”

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)