RIYADH, 15 May 2004 — What do Abdullah Al-Sulaiman, Naim Farooqi and K. Kajino have in common? They are all Japanese, and a supercar brought them together.
Arab News caught up with them at the Riyadh office of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), where they were meeting Hassan A. Maranqa, general manager of Black Jewel for Contracting.
The idea was to explore setting up an exclusive maintenance facility for supercars in Riyadh. Kajino is here to promote his car, said to be the most expensive in the world at $2.5 million.
Abdullah Al-Sulaiman is also known by his Japanese name Teruaki Shinohara. He was born in Tokyo in 1979 and lived there for 20 years, when his father returned to Saudi Arabia leaving his Japanese mother in Tokyo. Abdullah finished high school in Japan and knew no Arabic.
“When I came to Saudi Arabia, the first thing I had to do was learn Arabic at a local institute in Riyadh and later at Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University,” said Abdullah, who acted as interpreter at the meeting between Maranqa and Kajino.
Naim Farooqi became a Japanese citizen by accident. Born in Karachi, he went to Tokyo in 1987 to train in the Honda workshop.
Once he completed the training, he left Honda to launch his own company, Wan Trading, dealing in automobile parts. That is how he met with Kajino — a friendship that has lasted 15 years.
“My Japanese wife embraced Islam and adopted the Muslim name Ayesha,” Farooqi said. “My children speak Japanese fluently, although they also know a little bit of Urdu.”
