Gurudwara Sahib – Tokyo

In the late 1990s, first, we started Sat Sangat in an Indian restaurant. Then we shifted to Bunkyo-Ku in 2001 until now and we held Deewan at Tokyo Gurdwara Sahib. Everyone is Sewadaar and Sikh Sangat come all of the Kanto region.

Deewan happens once a month usually on a Sunday. Please note that Gurdwara Sahib is a basement of the India Visa Application Center.
LANDMARK India Visa Application Center (Japan Overseas Corporation)

Myogadani Heights 1F, 3-5-4 Otsuka, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo

For three years starting in 1998, devotees would gather once a month or on special occasions at one of a number of Indian restaurants, where they had set up a temporary temple in what was usually a limited space. Here they were able to offer worship, and the temple would move from one restaurant to another. Since Indian immigrants owned these restaurants, the space was granted on a voluntary basis.

“We came early morning and arranged the restaurant space for the one-day temple, cleaned the hall, prepared food for the devotees, and made the traditional offering called Kada Prasad,” recalls Bhupender Singh Sokhi, who played a key role in setting up the temporary temples.

The most commonly used restaurant was The Great Punjab in Akasaka, which is today known as Dining Bar Sonia, owned by Latesh Kumar Gajria. Three years later, in 2001, Sokhi asked Gajria if the community could rent a vacant room in the basement of an office building he owned in the Myogadani district, Bunkyo Ward, and here, finally, Tokyo’s Sikh community established its first small house of worship, known as the Guru Nanak Darbar Tokyo. Initially, community members paid a fixed amount toward the monthly rent, but later the temple committee purchased the entire basement floor.