Japan’s Yamaguchi University to offer Halal Food menu

Yamaguchi University in Japan will start offering a halal food menu from Oct. 2, enabling Muslim students to enjoy university cafeteria food with peace of mind.

Yamaguchi University in Japan will start offering a halal food menu from Oct. 2, enabling Muslim students to enjoy university cafeteria food with peace of mind.

The new menu is overseen by the university’s cooperative association at all three of the institution’s campuses in Yamaguchi Prefecture.

The aim is to provide a comfortable environment for Muslim students through the new halal menu and also through a prayer room located in the international exchange hall, where students can pray five times a day in accordance with their faith. 

The word “halal” means “permissible” in Arabic, and halal food is prepared under strict Muslim rules such as zero use of alcohol.

In May, some of the roughly 80 Muslim exchange students at the university had asked for a halal food menu to be provided, on the grounds that it is difficult to acquire halal ingredients in the prefecture.

They had also asked for a prayer room to be set up. 

The new menu consists of four items, namely green curry, yellow curry, chicken (massaman) curry and oven-baked chicken.

The curry option is changed on a weekly basis, and costs 450 yen including tax.