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The Kobe Kaikyo Jiin (Kobe Muslim Mosque) was built by Turkish, Tatar, and Indian muslims as the first Mosque in Japan in 1935. The architecture of the Mosque is very strong and it has survived the U.S. bombing (1945) and the great earthquake (1995).

Japan is one of the farthest country from the centre of the Islamic world. So there were no Islam population before 19th century.
Since the opening of country to the world in 1859, foreign traders from Islamic countries had started to visit and stay at the port city of Kobe.

Today there are many Muslim foreign inhabitants in Kobe. And there are also some Japanese Muslims as a religious minority. They get together at the Mosque to the prayer each Friday.