Why Are Many Turkish Doner Kebabs in Japan Not Halal?

Why are many Turkish doner kebabs (shawarmas as well) in Japan are not halal? If you have been a regular visitor of this blog, you may be wondering by now why I love becoming a whistleblower. I always tell you bad stories about the authenticity of various so-called halal products being sold in Japan.  The rationale behind this is simple.  Although, I am, by no means, a perfect Muslim, I always try to eat HALAL ONLY. Whenever I see some wrongdoings by any businesses operating in the disguise of halal, I raise my concerns.  I care less about my own business but more about the authenticity of the halal products various companies have been offering in Japan for quite some time now.

Why Are Many Turkish Doner Kebabs in Japan Are Not Halal?

With malice to none, I want to make things clear to you and to the kebab or shawarma shops all over Japan. In the following lines, I give you the most important reason these kebab shops are actually not offering halal doner kebabs.

How Are Doner kebab Made & What Makes These kebabs Haram?

Doner Kebab is a type of kebab, made of meat cooked on a vertical rotisserie or spit-roasting. It is a style of roasting where meat is skewered on a spit, a long rod used to hold meat while it is being cooked.  The cooks use thin layers of fat to cook this meat. Most of the fat being used by the doner kebab shops in the country is haram (unlawful to eat in Islam).

But why do they use haram fats to cook these Kebabs? The haram fat is easily available in the Japanese market from anywhere just for 50 yen per kg. However, the price of halal fat starts from 250 yen per kg. They consume several hundred kilograms of this fat on a monthly basis while serving doner kebabs or shawarma.  Purchasing a five times more expensive fat (although halal one) does not make business sense for them. That is the reason they do not use halal fat.

So, What Should You Do?

Just ask a simple question from the shop owner when you go visit a doner kebab shop next time. Is the fat being used to cook these kebabs halal? If yes, do they buy it from a halal shop or………

Which Kebab Shops Serve Halal Kebabs Only?

A good question. But I wish I could give you a straight answer.  Please try to verify the authenticity of their halal meat, beef or chicken or whatever is it and then ask them about the fat they use. Once you get a positive response, you may eat the kebab. But, we do not have any favorites at this moment to let you know.

Believe me, we do not intend to harm anyone and we have not wanted to do any point-scoring. However, the main purpose of the blog post is to let our readers know that not all kebab shops offer 100% halal kebabs. Please do confirm the ingredients in detail before buying any kebabs from these shops.

Our sole aim by sharing this piece of information to the public is that we want to let the Muslims know how things are going on in Japan and how we may help one other grow and improve as a community and thus make the country more Muslim and real halal-friendly.