I’m learning Japanese as a hobby to enjoy in my free time and read books, but I plan to use it for dawah and translating scholars later after fluent. Is it okay to learn it alongside Arabic? You said Arabic takes precedence, is it haram or makruh to start with Japanese before fully fluent in Arabic?

Ustadh AbdulAziz al-Haqqan

Focus on Arabic, and if your hobby is watching or reading that which is in Japanese which has no haram in it then yes as u want to use it for the deen of Allah. But I remind you Arabic takes precedence.