In Ebetsu, Hokkaido, a series of fires over the past year at a mosque and other facilities associated with the Pakistani community has drawn attention to some of the issues foreign residents face when coexisting with the local community, particularly for residents of Pakistani origin.
Early in the morning of Feb. 28, a fire broke out at a mosque in Ebetsu, a city of about 117,600. According to police, the blaze is believed to have originated inside the mosque, a prefabricated building that was unoccupied at the time. No one was injured in the incident. The following day, March 1, another fire occurred at a separate prefabricated building owned by a Pakistani resident.
The causes of the fires remain under investigation.
Meanwhile, on May 26, Hokkaido police announced the arrest of a 37-year-old agricultural worker from the city of Chitose on suspicion of attempting to set fire to a company office and residence in Ebetsu operated by a Pakistani national in a separate incident on Feb. 23. The suspect has reportedly denied the allegations.
Members of the local Pakistani community have raised concerns about the possibility of arson in the Feb. 28 and March 1 incidents, citing a series of anonymous attacks targeting the community.
“In October 2025, there was an incident where bottle rockets were fired at companies owned by Pakistani residents of Ebetsu, on the same street where the mosque is located. These attacks came after Japanese YouTube videos were posted saying the Pakistani community were working here illegally,” says Farooq Soban, a local Pakistani resident.
Ebetsu city council member Risa Takayanagi said that while police have yet to identify those who set off the bottle rockets, her impression — based on evidence found at the scene, as well as discriminatory emails and phone calls to city hall targeting the Pakistani community — is that there are reasons to suspect the perpetrators are not from Ebetsu.
“Intimidating or exclusionary behavior toward specific Ebetsu residents or facilities, regardless of their background, race or place of residence, should clearly not be tolerated. The impact of such behavior on the local community is extremely serious and cannot be overlooked,” Takayanagi said.
Ebetsu is about 30 minutes from Sapporo Station, and is home to 272 Pakistani residents. The city has about 1,000 foreign residents in total, including people from Vietnam, China, Indonesia, and Myanmar. Many Pakistani residents are engaged in the used-car export business.
“The basic reason why most Pakistanis chose to live in Ebetsu, though, is not because of its proximity to Sapporo or because it’s cheaper, but because it’s the site of used-car auctions,” said Soban.
These are not public auctions. Only people in the industry can participate. Pakistani residents buy used cars and car parts at the auction and ship them abroad.
“Ebetsu is close to major highways, allowing easy road transport of the cars to the ports of Otaru and Tomakomai,” he said.
In the Kakuyama area of Ebetsu, a mosque the local Pakistani community uses, along with some yards for dismantling used cars, and some prefabricated offices for used-car export companies, have been established without official permission from the city. Kakuyama is an urbanization control area, where construction is generally restricted, although agricultural facilities (such as those for the handling, storage or processing of agricultural products) may be approved.
“When we purchased the land, we believed we were allowed to use it as we saw fit. We were unaware that official permission from Ebetsu was needed for specific types of buildings like prefabricated structures. We only became aware this was an issue when city officials visited the site after the YouTube attacks,” said Muhammed Imran, chairman of the Ebetsu mosque.
He and Soban say the Pakistani community is ready to work with the city on finding a solution to the question of not only a permanent location where the Muslim community can worship, but also what to do about the question of the prefabricated buildings the city says are illegal.
“We have to take seriously the possibility that information regarding city systems, and regulations, were not adequately communicated. With regard to foreign residents in particular, it’s not sufficient for the city government to just acknowledge that systems and regulations exist. We have the responsibility of ensuring whether or not they were understood well,” says Takayanagi.
She also called for the city to propose realistic options for establishing a new mosque and to ensure the local Pakistani population is adequately consulted, while ensuring any new structure adheres to local zoning laws.
At the same time, Japanese and Pakistani residents of Ebetsu recognize that the mosque fire exposed the need for deeper cooperation on a broad range of other issues. One of these is the question of learning Japanese.
Miki Hirata heads the nonprofit organization Shake Hokkaido, which conducts a number of activities to support coexistence between foreign residents and Japanese residents, and assists with Japanese language learning, especially when daily emergencies arise.
While she says there are many Pakistani children who attend Ebetsu area schools, where they study Japanese, but that may not be the case with others.
“Many with children may need to go to the hospital. However, if even one person among dozens in the community speaks Japanese, that person will interpret for the others, so the rest do not feel the need to study the language,” she says.
Soban said that there are differences in communication levels among members of the Pakistani community, with some who may be less communicative with the Japanese community than others due to being more religiously conservative.
Mika Inomata, another Ebetsu city council member, said she began noticing that about two or three years ago, more Pakistani residents were bringing their families with them, unlike other foreign nationals in Ebetsu who are often technical interns.
“The very first challenge Ebetsu faced was figuring out how to manage the educational environment in schools with children who apparently spoke neither Japanese nor English. City council discussions included things like whether we could introduce book translation devices in schools or increase the number of local volunteers to help out,” she said.
Volunteers — especially those who teach Japanese and work to explain local city rules, regulations and ordinances — are important, Inomata said.
In December, following social media attacks and the bottle rocket launches, the Ebetsu city council sent a statement to the prime minister, the justice minister and both houses of parliament. It said the number of foreign residents in Japan is increasing, and that they were an indispensable part of local social infrastructure and local communities.
“We strongly urge the national government to clearly reject xenophobia and take necessary measures to protect a living environment where all residents, regardless of nationality, can live with peace of mind in their communities,” the statement read.
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