tokyo: Department stores, malls in Japan set up prayer rooms as Muslims visitors increase

As more people travel from Islamic countries due to a weakening yen, department shops and shopping centers in Japan are providing prayer rooms to accommodate the needs of Muslims.

There was a “prayer room” in the Matsuya Ginza department store in Tokyo’s posh shopping area, and at certain times of the day, a long queue of people stood in front of it.

The space features carpets for many persons to give prayers and a foot wash station for cleaning body parts before worship.

Thirty-something Malaysian woman expressed gratitude for finding a prayer room in Japan, adding she had looked for one online before traveling there.

Muslims typically pray five times a day, though some reduce the frequency to three times while on a trip, according to the Japan Tourism Agency. Their activities would be limited if they could not find a prayer room and had to return to their accommodation.

“Prayer rooms are necessary infrastructure similar to bathrooms and nursing rooms,” said a retail industry official, adding that people in the industry need to cooperate to install such rooms.

Among other department stores in Tokyo, Shibuya Parco in the Shibuya shopping district has opened a worship room.

Aeon Mall Co, which operates large-scale shopping complexes, has installed prayer rooms in seven outlets across Chiba, Kanagawa, Aichi, Hiroshima and Okinawa prefectures, with plans to expand the service to other stores.

The number of visitors to Japan from Indonesia, Malaysia and Turkey surpassed 870,000 in 2023, up 2.7-fold from a decade ago, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.