Mita moved to
China at the age of 24 and lived there for almost three decades straight (he briefly returned to Japan in 1921 but moved back to China the following year and found initial employment in the railway industry). During his long life in China, he saw
Islam firsthand and developed an interest in it, becoming a preeminent consultant to Japanese forces on Islam-related questions after he had been hired as a propagandist, although it wasn't until 1941 that he formally converted. Throughout this period, Mita was known to have met and had close discussions with
Shūmei Ōkawa, another translator of the Quran and fellow
pan-Asianist. Mita engaged in
spy work for the
Imperial Japanese Army and wrote of the need to propagandise
Muslims in China in order to obtain their support against the
Han Chinese forces. After the end of
World War II, Mita focused his efforts solely on Islam. He joined the recently founded
Association of Japanese Muslims (日本ムスリム協会) in 1952, becoming its leader from 1960 to 1962, whereafter Mita left for
Pakistan and
Saudi Arabia so as to learn
Arabic and translate the Quran into his native tongue, a task that he would complete a decade later in 1972. His translation avoided terms with
Buddhist connotations in favour of simple
native phrases and occasionally terms with
Christian precedent. ==Published works==