Halal Restaurant Started from the 'Food Barrier' Faced During Study Abroad

Currently, I manage two Halal restaurants for Muslims in Tokyo. Halal refers to food that is permissible under Islamic law, which prohibits pork and alcohol. Therefore, Halal food is anything that does not contain pork or alcohol and is suitable for Muslims to consume.

Recently, due to the cherry blossom season and the weak yen, Japan has seen an increase in overseas tourists, including Muslim tourists. Japanese customers are fewer. However, the number of Japanese who have converted to Islam is also increasing, so we are seeing more of those customers as well.

After coming to Japan, I struggled a lot with finding suitable food. For example, in 2017, when I came to a Japanese language school as a student, there was hardly any meat with a Halal mark. Even in convenience stores, there were no Halal cup noodles. I had a hard time finding other foods and ingredients as well. Later, although there were various signs for ramen, sukiyaki, and yakitori, there were no Halal options available. Therefore, after graduating from a graduate school with a major in business planning, I conducted research on Halal food and started providing various Halal options to customers who needed them. My goal is to Halal-ify Japanese cuisine, integrate it with Japanese culture, and deliver it to the world.

For example, I started my business with ramen as the main focus. Then, I added fried dumplings. Since there were no Halal dumpling specialty stores in Japan at the time, I started offering dumplings as well. Now, I have a small product manufacturing workshop in Matsudo where I produce Halal dumplings and plan to distribute them to Halal shops and supermarkets. I initially planned to create Halal dumplings and appeared on a TV show called "Reiwa no Tora" before starting my business, where I received funding. I received a loan of 5 million yen and started my business. I designed everything from the brand to the menu development all by myself, with my wife supporting me. When we first opened the store, we ran it together. Even though my wife has her own job, she helps me at the store after finishing her work. This has led to the development of our second store and factory.

Although Japanese people know more about ramen than I do, one characteristic of my ramen is that I make beef and chicken char siu myself every day. I make it in Matsudo and provide it to the store. First, I shape the meat, roll it, and boil it for about 90 minutes. Then, I combine Japanese and Uyghur seasonings. Since I am from Uyghur, I integrate the characteristics of Uyghur cuisine with Japanese cuisine and offer it to foreigners.

I started my first store in May 2024 and my second store in January 2025. Now, some people are inquiring about my third store, but I don't plan to expand much within Japan. I would like to consider expanding overseas. The yen is weak, so I would like to conduct market research and on-site surveys by the end of this year. Therefore, I am studying English every day.

At the moment, I have little private time and spend a lot of time working, so I don't think the balance is good. However, since it's my own business, I have the freedom to adjust my time. I prioritize what I want to do and then adjust my work and business accordingly. Yes, I have been working hard for the past five years, and now that my business is stable, I would like to take a step back from work and delegate tasks to professionals instead of doing everything myself. Yes, I am considering various things for further development.

It is possible. At the moment, I am developing various new menus and conducting research at the factory. Apart from cooking, since I am not a chef, I leave the cooking to professionals and participate in various business contests and speech contests to improve my skills. For example, I would like to know how to plan for staff and what kind of staff training is necessary and to what extent. Since I have no experience in running such a business, I am learning while doing it.

Yes, it's not for money. If it were for money, I would want to run a simpler business. For example, ordering cheap Chinese-made products, setting up a tent in Ueno Park, and selling them from a food truck would be profitable, but I wouldn't be able to convey my aspirations. A business is like a child of your own. You have to pour your love into it. I don't want to be a businessman who only cares about making money quickly.

I am currently working at about 80% capacity. However, by the age of 55, I plan to reduce it to 20%. At 55, I believe I will understand the meaning of life, and life is not just about working. It's about experiencing various things, seeing different things, and taking time to think. I have been in Uyghur for 30 years and in Japan for another 10 years, doing various things. After that, I plan to focus on overseas for 15 years, and at 55, I will retire and write a book summarizing all my experiences, thoughts, and the influences I have received from others. I want to convey my experiences and life lessons to my juniors and work hard for that.

If they work and achieve success, I think that would be happiness. For example, I am getting married, and my son will be born next month. Children who see their parents working in various companies, such as salarymen, grow up watching them. However, since we are running a business, I think they need to see us taking on various challenges and thinking outside the box. If they see us working hard, I believe they will have even greater opportunities and better challenges in the future. They will be fluent in Japanese, receive Japanese education, and if we can exhibit overseas, they will go there, receive English education, and mix various cultures to achieve even greater success than us.

To those people, we are not yet successful, so what I want to tell them is, for example, as I mentioned earlier, if we aim for the moon and throw a stone, even if we don't reach the moon, we can reach the top of a tree. Therefore, if you want to do something, such as a restaurant, I was influenced by my senior. This senior runs about 170 hotels and restaurants in Uyghur, and now he is doing international business in the United States and Germany. When I asked him what his future dream is, I was thinking of about 100 stores, but he advised me to aim for 10,000 stores because if I aimed for 100 stores, I would stop at 10 stores. My current message is that business partners, friends, and acquaintances who are running such businesses should think bigger and have bigger plans. Most people need to work hard to create a plan. From the moment you start thinking about opening a store, you should have a plan for 10,000 stores and create a system that can reach 10,000 stores if such a business model exists. If you can achieve that, I believe you can succeed.