He was born to a Volga Tatar family that took refuge in Japan. His father Muhammad Safa was an imam (Muslim cleric) who fought on the side of Whites during the Russian Civil War. His family attained Turkish citizenship and he grew in the poor Tokyo district of Shitamachi. After Turkey sided with Allies in February 1945, he was rounded up for hard labor along with other enemy aliens. A popular media figure of the 1960s, he took Japanese citizenship only in 1971. He died of laryngeal cancer and is interred at the Foreigners' Muslim Cemetery in Tokyo. His father died two years later in 1984.