New app helps Muslims in Japan track down halal cosmetics

In order to cater to this gap in the Japanese market, a PhD student in Kyushu University’s department of earth resources engineering has designed 'HalalMinds' to help consumers locate and identify halal products.

The free app launched for Android in April is essentially a barcode scanner that matches food, cosmetics or pharmaceuticals against a built-in database of 500,000 products to determine whether they are halal or not. 

According to the creator, Agung Pambudi who discovered the gap in the market on moving to Fukuoka back in 2011, this application can be particularly useful for consumers who cannot read Japanese, as labels often contain complex kanji characters.

The language is primarily in English but additional language support may come at a later date, depending on its success. "HalalMinds has already been downloaded more than 1,100 times since launching less than a month ago,"​ Pambudi reports.

App service to capture an overlooked demographic throughout Asia​

While the current focus is on Japan, Pambudi believes that HalalMinds would be successful in other Asian markets as well.

“We are preparing to expand this service to South Korea and Taiwan, since both countries have similar conditions with Japan regarding their respective Muslim populations​,” he says.

According to co-founder Dai Oshiro and head of public relations Hironori Goto, the app has been developed without any external funding and thanks to relaxed visa rules for Southeast Asian countries with large Muslim populations, HalalMinds is poised to capture a seemingly overlooked demographic.

The trio is currently seeking investors in what they believe is a rapidly growing market with little to no competition.

"It’s difficult to move fast without external fundraising. However, we’re still going forward with funding from our own pocket because halal-focused business is a truly blue ocean opportunity from our point of view,​" says Oshiro.

Up until now the app has being relying on social media users to spread the word.