Ahlul Bayt News Agency - To better accommodate the growing number of Muslim exchange students, Sophia University in Tokyo has started selling boxed lunches made with halal food.
“Until now, I have been buying my lunch at convenience stores and asking my Japanese friends to make sure it doesn’t include pork,” said Panji Purdi, a 21-year-old student from Indonesia. “Halal food is usually rather expensive, but lunches sold here are low-priced and delicious.”
Sophia’s Yotsuya campus in Chiyoda Ward has been selling about 150 units daily since April 16 for between ¥240 and ¥500. The fare ranges from hamburgers and fried chicken to curry with rice, the Japan Times reported.
The university, which started a student exchange program with four Southeast Asian countries last year, decided to offer halal lunches after a questionnaire found that many of its roughly 30 Muslim students have a difficult time determining whether the meals they buy include pork, which Muslims abstain from eating, a university spokesman said.
“Since the nationalities of exchange students are becoming more diversified, we want to continue improving the environment for them,” the spokesman said.
The lunches are popular among Japanese students and other exchange students as well, according to the university.
The University of Tokyo was the first to incorporate halal meat into its meal options in 2010 using meat ordered through the association, and four universities in the region have followed suit.
In January 2014, University of Yamanashi also started offering halal meals in their menus to cater to the needs of the growing number of Muslim students.
Islam began in Japan in the 1920s through the immigration of a few hundreds of Turkish Muslims from Russia following the Russian revolution.
In 1930, the number of Muslims in Japan reached about 1000 of different origins.
Another wave of migrants who boosted the Muslim population reached its peak in the 1980s.
Japan today is home to a thriving Muslim community of about 120,000, among nearly 127 million in the world's tenth most populated country.
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source : OnIslam
Monday
4 May 2015
2:02:33 PM
688224
To better accommodate the growing number of Muslim exchange students, Sophia University in Tokyo has started selling boxed lunches made with halal food.