The Muslim community in Japan is quite small, with only 200.000 members in a country of more than 120 million inhabitants.
In Japan, 99 percent of the population is cremated, because they respect Buddhist or Shinto customs.
Islam forbids cremation, and Muslims usually bury the dead within 24 hours.
Some families are forced to take the bodies of their deceased hundreds of kilometers away to give them a decent burial.
"Even the thought that I might have to cremate someone close to me gives me insomnia," says an emotional Tahir Abbas Khan, who first came to Japan in 2001 for his doctoral studies.
Khan, who was born in Pakistan, is now a university lecturer and a Japanese citizen.
He is active in his community in the city of Beppu, in the Oita region on the southernmost Japanese island of Kyushu, where he founded a Muslim association of the same name.
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A long struggle
Khan says he doesn't particularly care about his own body, but is troubled by the pain of other Muslim believers.
"A funeral rite is the last thing you can do for someone.
"If I can't bury my relative or friend with dignity, I can't lead a normal life."
The first mosque in the administrative area of Oiti prefecture was established in 2009, but the construction of a cemetery for the community of about 2.000 Muslims is still in the planning stage.
Mohammad Iqbal Khan and his wife came to Japan from Pakistan in 2004.
He founded a car export company near Tokyo, and later moved the headquarters to the city of Fukuoka in the neighboring prefecture.
When his wife gave birth to a stillborn baby in 2009, there was no Muslim cemetery in his area.
"We put the body in a small box and drove the car to Yamanashi Prefecture, which is more than 1.000 kilometers away," says Iqbal, reliving the trauma.
"Four friends came with me.
"We took turns behind the wheel the whole way."
In the cemetery in Yamanashi, in the central part of Japan, Muslims and Christians are buried, who make up a little over one percent of the population and are the most numerous religious minority in the country.
"I wanted to be with my wife in those painful moments, but it was not possible," laments Iqbal.
"It was very difficult".
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Application for a building permit at an impasse
The Kana Association bought a plot of land next to the Christian cemetery in Bepu.
The owners of the land around the plot gave permission for construction, but the nearest community, which is three kilometers away, lodged an objection.
"They said that burying the bodies would contaminate the groundwater, as well as the lake water used for irrigation," Khan explains.
Since no progress has been made in seven years, members of the Muslim community are forced to look for other ways.
Khan says some Muslim settlers have returned the bodies of family members to their homelands.
And those who are in the terminal phase of a malignant disease decide to spend their last days in the country of their birth, he adds.
However, transporting the body to the homeland requires extensive paperwork and entails the inevitable delay of the burial.
Such a possibility is not considered by Ryoko Sato, a Japanese woman who accepted Islam and who also lives on the island of Kyushu.
"Some say - if you don't follow Japanese rules, go back to your country.
"Others say - take the body to neighboring countries where burial is allowed," she says.
"My husband has lived in Japan for more than half of his life.
"He acquired Japanese citizenship a long time ago and pays taxes like native Japanese.
"His descendants will continue to live in Japan, so where do you think his body should be after his death?"
Sato believes that the resistance to burial occurs due to "cultural prejudices".
"Some people think that burial is something horrible and unacceptable, even though it was quite common just a few generations ago," Sato points out.
She has attended many cremations, but she is determined to be buried.
"If someone's desire to be buried is considered selfish, then let me be selfish when it comes to my dead body."
However, Shinji Kojima, associate professor of sociology at Ritsumeikan Asia-Pacific University, where Dr. Kan also teaches, says the reasons are more complex.
He has investigated the matter and advises the Muslim Association in Bepu what to do.
"Actually, it is not crucial whether someone is a Muslim or not.
"For the outcome of the submitted request, it is crucial that you know how the local community works and that you have people in the right positions or good connections," explains Kojima to the BBC.
"Many non-Muslim Japanese real estate developers often face resistance from the local community.
"Not in my neighborhood - that's a common attitude, and it's held by people who oppose any change or development in their vicinity."
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A possible solution
Khan says there are 13 Muslim cemeteries in Japan, including the one recently built in Hiroshima, which is about a three-hour drive away.
Iqbal went there with bereaved families and friends.
"There are all the facilities we need in Hiroshima.
"There are facilities with water where we can clean ourselves and the local community provides us with halal (pure/permissible) food," he says.
Khan sought help to solve this problem from members of parliament, relevant ministries and local authorities.
Later, the Muslim community in Bepu was allotted land for 79 grave sites, which gives new hope.
"It's not just a religious issue, but a basic human right," he emphasizes.
"We're not asking for anything for free.
"We want to pay, but the biggest problem is getting a construction permit."
He says that other small religious communities, such as Jews and recently immigrated Christians from Brazil, are fighting a similar battle.
"The best solution is to create a common cemetery for several religious communities in all prefectures of Japan."
However, the probability that the Government of Japan will intervene is small, because it has left the resolution of this issue up to local authorities.
But Khan does not lose hope.
"We will not cremate the corpses, that will not happen.
"We will do whatever it takes to bury our dead."
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