Old footage of a tsunami that struck a city in Japan’s eastern Miyagi Prefecture in 2011 has been viewed more than a million times. It was falsely claimed to have been recorded after a major earthquake in August 2024. Authorities say only small tsunamis have been recorded after the recent earthquake in southern Japan.
“JAPAN MAGNITUDE 7.1 AFTERMATH,” reads the text above a four-minute Facebook video video more than 1.5 million views since posting on August 11, 2024.
The footage appears to have been filmed from a rooftop and shows cars being swept away by the mass of water.
The text at the bottom of the video reads: “TSUNAMI EARTHQUAKE.”
The caption referred to a magnitude of 7.1 on the Richter scale earthquake which struck southern Japan on August 8, with no major damage reported and only relatively small tsunami waves hitting the coast (archived link).
Authorities warned of a possible “megaquake” after the tremor, which subsided a week later.
The video was also shared along with a similar false claim on Facebook And YouTube.
But it doesn’t show a recent tsunami. The clip was taken during the worst natural disaster in Japan’s living memory: the massive earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown of March 11, 2011, which left more than 18,500 people dead or missing.
Old tsunami images
AFP has previously debunked reports that the clip was falsely attributed to collapse of a hydroelectric power plant in Laos and a storm in Japan.
The clip matches film material published on YouTube by Fuji News Network (FNN) in October 2012, with a watermark indicating that the photo was taken on March 11, 2011 in the city of Ishinomaki in eastern Japan’s Miyagi Prefecture (archived link).
The caption of the YouTube video states that it was filmed by an employee from the roof of the Ishinomaki Gas Building.
Below is a screenshot of the video in the fake messages (left) and the FNN footage (right):
The location of the video matches Google Maps imagery with the three blue tubular towers and two blue spherical structures visible from the Ishinomaki Gas office (archived link).
Below is a screenshot of a comparison of the structures in the FNN video (left) and the location on Google Maps (right), with the similarities highlighted by AFP: