First Islamic cemetery to be developed in Southwest Japan

Beppu Muslim association reached an agreement with local residents of HIJI, Oita, in southwest Japan for developing a cemetery dedicated to the followers of Islam.

The cemetery will become the first Islamic burial place in the Kyushu region in Japan’s southwest.

According to the Mainichi newspaper, “The project will be developed with 79 plots covering a 4,900-square-meter area of land.”

The conditions of this agreement include “a 20-year-gap between burials in the same plot,”, “limiting burials to Muslims who lived in Kyushu or Okinawa”, and “not expanding the cemetery’s site”.

It should be mentioned that Islam is a minority faith in Japan, representing around 0.15% of the total population as of 2022.