Since arriving as a student in Japan 30 years ago, Haroon Qureshi has been reaching out to those living on the margins in his adopted home.

Sometimes it is the country's homeless he helps, and sometimes foreigners who have been detained by immigration authorities after failing in bids to win refugee status.

But whomever he is extending a helping hand to, Qureshi, a businessman hailing from Pakistan who is also deeply involved in the running of a Tokyo mosque, says he is motivated by his conviction that all people, regardless of nationality or religion, belong to "one family."