The false claim came to light after a powerful explosion measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale. earthquake struck southern Japan on August 8, but no major damage was reported and only relatively small tsunami waves were hurled onto the coast (archived link).
After the shock, Japanese authorities warned of a possible “megaquake”, which disappeared a week later.
The same video along with the claim was viewed more than 117,000 times on YouTube here And here. Similar fake messages were shared here And here on Facebook.
However, the video shows the tsunami caused by a massive earthquake that hit the East Asian country in 2011.
Old images
At least two scenes from the fake video can be seen in a clip aired by the Japanese broadcaster TBS newsaffiliated with the Japan News Network (JNN) (archived link).
The TBS video was posted on February 25, 2021, with a caption that it showed archive footage of the tsunami that hit the coast of Miyako City on March 11, 2011.
“Valuable images from that time at JNN stations are being archived to raise awareness of disaster prevention and pass on the memories of that time to future generations,” the caption reads.
The photo shows two vehicles in a parking lot that slowly fills with water after 43 seconds. After 1 minute and 47 seconds, dozens of vehicles and blue containers are washed away.
The scenes corresponded to the 12-second and 46-second markers of the fake video, which were horizontally flipped from the previous footage.
Below are screenshots of the scenes in the fake video (left) and the footage from TBS News (right):
Similarly, another scene from the fake video matches a clip published by the Japanese broadcaster Minaminihon Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) on March 11, 2023 (archived link).
The MBC clip was aired to mark the 12th anniversary of the 2011 earthquake, the report said.
Several people were filmed watching the devastation from higher ground at the 42-second mark of the MBC video, which matches the scene at the 54-second mark of the fake video.
Below is a screenshot of the fake video (left) and the MBC footage (right):
The location in the images distributed online generally corresponds to an image tagged on a pier in Miyako on Google Maps (archived link) in 2021, as seen in the screenshot below:
AFP has debunked other false claims about the August 2024 earthquake in Japan here And here.
