AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): The Japan Fact-Check Center (JFC) announced in a report that the claim published on the X social network that the local government of Tokyo has allocated funds for building Islamic mosques is incorrect. This claim was raised after the widespread circulation of a post titled "Tokyo subsidizes the construction of Islamic mosques" on social media; but the investigations conducted show that the financial support mentioned is not related to building a mosque.
According to this report, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has a program called the "Plan to Strengthen the Capacity to Receive Foreign Tourists," the purpose of which is to help tourism-related centers better respond to the needs of foreign travelers. Within the framework of this plan, some measures such as multilingual signage, creating communication facilities, and providing suitable spaces for the cultural needs of tourists are supported.
One of the sections of this program is support for prayer rooms in some tourism centers, hotels, and service centers; an issue that has been mistaken for building a mosque on social media. The Tokyo government has explicitly stated that it has no program to pay subsidies for building mosques, and the assistance of this plan does not include the construction or development of places of worship such as mosques.
Tokyo officials have emphasized that the prayer rooms supported in this plan are not mosques or places of worship exclusive to a particular group, but rather spaces for responding to the diverse cultural and religious needs of foreign tourists. Also, one of the conditions for receiving support is that these spaces be accessible for public use and that information about the possibility of using them be provided in different languages.
The Japan Fact-Check Center, by reviewing the published statements and referring to the official explanations of the Tokyo government, announced that the claim that "Tokyo has allocated funds for building an Islamic mosque" is not accurate. According to this center, the existing financial support relates to improving tourism services and creating facilities such as prayer rooms in service centers, not the construction of mosques or religious centers.
This report has been published in circumstances where, with the increase in international tourism in Japan, some cities and tourism centers in this country have sought in recent years to provide more facilities for tourists with different cultural and religious backgrounds. However, the investigation conducted shows that Tokyo's plan is an action in the field of tourism and public services and has no connection to financing the construction of mosques.
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