Newsletter No. 1442
News-Analysis
August 28, 2009

 

MALAYSIAN MUSLIMS WONDER IF JAPANESE FOOD IS HALAL

A recent report by Bernama indicates that Japanese restaurants in Malaysia are not faring well due to local concerns that Japanese food may not be “halal.” Daisho Food Sales Manager Masato Suzuki commented, “[Malaysian Muslims] avoid going to Japanese restaurants or buy Japanese food from stores because they are worried that non-halal meat and alcohol may be used to prepare such food.”

The term “halal” means “permissible” in the Arabic language, but in this context it refers to foods which are permitted for Muslims to eat. For meat products, the dhabihah method of ritual slaughter of animals is encouraged, which involves draining the blood of an animal through its neck. Some Muslims hold this issue to be quite important for their religion, while others do not. The global halal market is now estimated to have a value of about US$580 billion. Malaysia is one of the Muslim nations that takes this matter fairly seriously.

Japanese chain stores and restaurants in Malaysia plan to promote fruits or food that are halal in order to attract more local customers.

Furthermore, back in May, the Japanese ambassador in Malaysia, Masahiko Horie, indicated that Japanese companies wanted to use Malaysia’s experiences to enter the global halal market. He stated: “Malaysia wants to become the center of the halal industry, as in Islamic finance for which the country is already a hub. I think Malaysia has already become a kind of halal hub and hope this can be expanded in the near future… If they are able to come out with halal products, Japanese manufacturers will find that there is a big market among the Islamic countries.”

NEWS BRIEFS

Malaysia’s Ministry of Tourism wants to lure “sophisticated office ladies”—charmingly described as SOLs—to visit this Southeast Asian nation and do some shopping. Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr. Ng Yen Yen (she certainly has the right name for the job) wants these Japanese ladies to spend their yen locally: “We want the SOL group who shop in Europe and Western countries to come here. Our advantage is the duty-free shopping.” Dr. Ng, who visited Japan and China earlier this year, also wants Japanese students to come: “The Japanese government en¬¬courages its students to travel overseas with a cost of not more than 100,000 yen per student. We will make arrangements for Malaysian students to join the trips to promote cultural exchange programs between the two counties.”

The Japanese Foreign Ministry issued a statement in late April welcoming the liberalization of foreign investment in the Malaysian services sector. The statement said: “The Government of Japan highly commends this decision by the Government of Malaysia as one which takes a stand against moves towards protectionism that have been occurring throughout the world, and hopes that these measures by the Government of Malaysia will be implemented swiftly and smoothly.”

The Tokuyama Corporation, a Japanese chemical maker, announced earlier this month that it will invest about US$685 million to construct a new plant in Sarawak to produce polycrystalline silicon for solar cells. Construction of the new plant in the Samalaju Industrial Park in Bintulu is scheduled to begin early next year. Operations will commence in 2013 with three hundred employees and an annual production capacity of 6,000 tons.

The Perodua Myvi, a subcompact hatchback automobile, is a symbol of the successful Malaysia-Japan Automotive Industry Cooperation (MAJAICO), Japanese Ambassador to Malaysia Masahiko Horie said in April. This automobile was named the Malaysian Car of the Year and has been a top seller. Horie observed, “What is interesting about the Myvi is that it is the perfect joint-venture cooperation between Malaysia and Japan… The Perodua Myvi is a very good example of what joint cooperation between Japan and Malaysia can achieve. This MAJAICO project has also been appreciated by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, or MITI, who are very grateful for the assistance of the Japanese experts. I hope the cooperation between Japan and Malaysian in the automotive sector can be further expanded so that more, better selling and quality cars can be produced in future.”

COMMENTARY

1) From Mohammad Anwer Memon of Yokohama Mosque on August 29, 2009:

Japanese products are considered very reliable and trustworthy in terms of technology, but "culturally" they are not so trustworthy. The reason may be that people around the world feel that most Japanese businessmen or companies do not care about the cultural values of their people or countries with whom they do business. It seems that there is a trend in Japan to push their own values and style upon others. Well, this is not the case for Japnese only; many Western countries have the same trends. However, this is not common in the business world; rather, it is more common in government aid programs. In Japan's case, though, this trend is felt even among businessmen and traders. This results in lowering the trust in Japanese products.

As far as Halal products are concerned, there may be only a few companies that are "cheating" Muslim customers by mixing non-Halal items into the products (like the Ajinomoto case in Indonesia or the recent supply of beef to the UAE, etc.). But these some cases also make us feel that there may be many other hidden cases. Specifically, trust is reduced by observing the cheating in food products within Japan itself (selling imported items while saying they are Japanese, or mixing pork with beef to lower costs, etc.)

It seems that the Japanese government and trading companies are now looking to Islamic countries for business opportunities, whether it be getting construction contracts in oil-rich countries, or it is selling Japanese items in Islamic countries. Watching TV, we often hear about the policy of "attacting oil money." This shows that Japanese are quite eager to do business with Islamic (especially Arab) countries. As conventional Japanese products are already popular in most of the Islamic countries, now they are trying to enter in new markets. "Halal Products" is one such new market.

But key to success in this market is the credibility of Japanese companies. They have to be very careful. Another necessity is transparency about their products, which is very much lacking in Japan. Showing the ingredients on the product's box is of course necessary. But I think that this is not enough. They have to explain where the ingredients have been bought, plus open to public scrutiny the "processing" of the food. There may even be a need to open everything to some Islamic institution in Japan and get the necessary certification from them.

Trust in Japanese food products is already half lost. They have to work harder to gain the trust of Muslims in Japanese food products.