Businessman Mohamed Mohideen has lived in Osaka for 39 years. He moved from his home country of Sri Lanka in 1987 in search of better job opportunities during the bubble economy.

He worked with gemstones and later worked in trade, exporting used cars to countries such as Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

He moved at a time, he says, when there were far fewer foreign residents.

But Mohideen feels that compared to then, the local population has become hostile and has started making hurtful comments towards Muslims, both online and in person.

“There are countless comments on social media like ‘Get out of Japan’ and ‘Go back to your own country,'” Mohideen said. “People also started coming to the mosque and shouting insults.”

Mohideen goes to the Osaka mosque every day to pray and perform other tasks as a member of the local Islamic community. He says he never felt like his life was in danger.

Despite having good relations with neighbors for many years, Mohideen has more recently noticed a change in attitude towards Muslims.

“Now I feel like people are afraid of us.”

Verbal abuse has worsened in recent years. He recalled that members of his Muslim community were called terrorists, accused of making bombs and told to leave Japan.

“When that happens, the only thing we can do is be patient. They are trying to pick a fight or create a confrontation. They want to see how long we will tolerate it,” Mohideen explained.

“So we stay calm, speak gently and treat them kindly, because Japanese people generally don’t know much about Islam.”

Still, he believes there is some shared responsibility for the breakup.

“We focused only on our work and, for a long time, we did not make enough effort to help people understand who we are. We also did not do enough to become part of society,” he said.

“From now on, I want to work harder to increase dialogue and build better mutual understanding.”