A lawmaker from the Conservative Party of Japan pressed the government on November 5 to act faster when buildings go up without permits, taking up the case of a mosque in Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture, that was built without application or permission on private land where construction is restricted.
Nobuo Kitamura, speaking at the Upper House judicial affairs committee, said the city took too long to escalate from administrative guidance to a formal order. "It is difficult to coexist with foreigners who put religion before the law," he said, arguing that the government should confirm at entry that foreign nationals intend to obey Japanese law.
A permit problem, and a slow paper trail
Kawagoe learned of the construction work in October 2024 and posted a warning notice on the site demanding an immediate halt. Work continued. In April last year the city began corrective guidance, treating the structure as a building-code violation and asking the Pakistan-linked company that owns the land to remove it.
The company submitted a plan in March this year to remove the building over five years. The following month it held an opening ceremony for the mosque and invited Pakistan's ambassador to Japan. On October 1 the city issued an order to demolish the building and stop using it.
Kitamura said the sequence showed the city had moved too slowly. "Too much time was spent on administrative guidance during and after construction, and the decision to issue an administrative order came too late, so the illegal building was completed and then used," he said. "This was an extremely inappropriate response by the administration."
Calls for a nationwide notice
He asked the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism to tell local governments across the country to issue orders quickly in similar cases. "This is a case where it was clear from the start that there was no intention of following administrative guidance, since the work continued after a request to stop," he said.
The ministry said it already shares examples of supervisory measures, including orders to halt work or remove buildings, at meetings and training sessions for officials who handle development permits. It also gives technical advice when local governments consult it about permit violations, and said it would keep working so that municipalities apply the system properly.
Drawing on his experience as a lawyer in negotiations, Kitamura said the outcome of a dispute can be judged from how the other side responds. "In this case we asked for construction to stop and it continued without stopping," he said. "Anyone can see that administrative guidance will never resolve this. Dragging out a negotiation that will not conclude is the height of folly, and the same can be said of administration."
The city's order followed a demolition plan the landowner had already filed. The dispute before the committee was over how long Kawagoe waited, not over whether the building broke the rules.