This is the India vector with Nikita Kapoor.
Imagine someone buys a plot of land in a quiet suburb, starts building, no permits, no permissions, no paperwork.
When inspectors show up, workers shrug and say, which means I don’t understand Japanese.
By the time anyone can stop them, the roof is on.
Welcome to Kabag, Japan.
Population, a little under 400,000.
And now home to one very controversial mosque, the Japan Jam Mazjid Ramzan sits in Kabago City on a 4,500 square meter plot classified as mountain forest land.
That is important because the site falls within an urbanization control area where construction is generally prohibited unless special permissions are granted under local planning regulations.
No special permission was granted because none was ever asked for.
Yes, that’s true.
The city says it first learned the building existed in October 2024 after a resident tipped them off.
By then, the exterior was nearly finished.
Let that sink in.
By the time Japan’s building inspectors arrived, the walls were up.
The building was almost done.
And the workers, when officials repeatedly demanded a halt to construction, the warnings were ignored.
workers reportedly responded by saying that they did not understand Japanese and staff had to go out again and again in person to spell it out that you cannot build here.
But the building went up anyway.
The structure was unregistered.
Its exact owner was technically unknown.
In March 2025, the land changed hands from a real estate firm in nearby Fujimi to a company headed by a Pakistani national with its headquarters listed at the same address.
And then here is where it gets even more brzen.
That company, despite city officials having personally watched the construction happen, made the bizarre claim that the building was already standing from the beginning.
It was always there.
The building was always there just like that.
Now, you would think at this point the story would end with a demolition notice and a diplomatic apology.
Well, it didn’t.
The illegal mosque held its opening ceremony.
The ceremony was attended by Pakistan’s ambassador to Japan, Abdul Hamid.
Pakistan’s ambassador at the inauguration of a building Japan had declared illegal.
A building whose owners had already submitted in writing a plan to remove it.
Pakistan inaugurated a mosque that Japan wants demolished.
In what can only be called a major embarrassment for Pakistan, the Pakistan embassy in Japan issued a statement urging Pakistani Muslims in Japan to abide by Japanese laws and regulations, particularly the construction of mosques.
The statement carefully worded read and I’m quoting here.
The embassy of Pakistan in Japan strongly urges all Pakistani residing in Japan to comply with Japanese laws in all matters including the construction of mosques.
Any construction must be undertaken only after obtaining the necessary permits from local authorities.
And then in a second statement, the Pakistan embassy insisted it had no involvement in projects that breach Japanese law and clarified that the ambassador accepted the inauguration invitation only after being assured that all required permits had been obtained.
Two statements, both carefully worded, neither using the word illegal.
Now let’s zoom out for a moment viewers because this story doesn’t exist in a vacuum.
India has spent years facing international pressure over the demolition of unauthorized structures including mosques.
Pakistan has been among the loudest critics.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry has issued statement after statement condemning India’s actions, calling them targeted, calling them discriminatory.
And yet in Japan, a structure built without permits in a protected zone by a Pakistani owned company is now the subject of a demolition order and Pakistan’s own embassy is telling its citizens to follow the law.
The irony writes itself.
But let’s be fair.
This is not just a Pakistan story.
It is a Japan story too.
According to Professor Emiratorus Hiroi Tanada of Waseda University, Japan’s Muslim population grew from approximately 110,000 in 2010 to about 420,000 by the end of 2024.
The number of mosques surged from just five in 1999 to around 160 by 2025.
That is a 30fold increase in places of worship in just 25 years.
The surge in Muslim residents is largely linked to changes in Japan’s labor and immigration policies.
Tokyo has allowed more and more foreign workers, especially technical interns and trainees to fill gaps in an aging workforce, drawing large numbers of Indonesia, Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Malaysian and Turkish residents.
Kavagoy city has emphasized its position clearly that we are not making an issue of this because it is a mosque.
We issue corrective guidance for any illegal structure.
Now, here’s the bottom line.
A Pakistani company built a mosque in Japan secretly without permits in a protected zone while ignoring repeated official stop orders.
Pakistan’s ambassador attended that particular inauguration and then Pakistan’s embassy told its own citizens to follow the law.
If Pakistan wants to be taken seriously when it lectures other countries about religious minority rights and illegal demolishers, it might want to start by obeying zoning laws.
What do you think about it? Tell us in the comment section below.
