Japan’s Mobile Mosques Ready for Olympics

The Olympic Games are usually attended by a huge number of players from different faiths and nationalities.

Since their inception centuries ago in Athens, the Games have served as a uniting force for people.

As Japan prepares to host the globe’s largest sports event, mobile mosques are ready in Tokyo to welcome thousands of Muslim athletes and fans during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, Reuters reported.

The Yasu Project, the organization behind the enterprise, plans on pitching up outside venues during the Olympics, which run from July 24 – Aug. 9.

A Mobile Mosque on the back of truck providing a portable solution for Muslims looking for a safe and clean place to pray is parked at a parking lot in Tokyo, Japan February 5, 2020. REUTERS/Jack Tarrant
A Mobile Mosque on the back of truck providing a portable solution for Muslims looking for a safe and clean place to pray is parked at a parking lot in Tokyo, Japan February 5, 2020. REUTERS/Jack Tarrant

“I want athletes to compete with their utmost motivation and for the audience to cheer on with their utmost motivation as well. That is why I made this,” said the organization’s CEO Yasuharu Inoue, pointing to the white truck parked next to Tokyo Tower on Wednesday.

“I hope it brings awareness that there are many different people in this world and to promote a non-discriminatory, peaceful Olympics and Paralympics.”

Japan’s Mobile Mosques Ready for Olympics - About Islam

All Faith Groups

Tokyo 2020 said on Wednesday that they were looking at various avenues to provide appropriate facilities for all religious groups.

“The Organizing Committee is preparing a list of religious or faiths centers that could be contacted or visited if requested by residents of the Villages during the Games,” Tokyo 2020 told Reuters in an email.

“In the Games’ venues, multi-faith prayer spaces for athletes and spectators are under consideration in venue operations planning.”

The earliest Muslim records of Japan are in the works of the Muslim cartographer Ibn Khordadbeh.

Recently, the Pew Research Center estimated in 2010 that there were 185,000 Muslims in Japan.