Fake Alert: Japan did not set off fireworks intended for Tokyo Olympics 2020 as shown in this viral video

Due to Covid-19 pandemic situation, many major sporting & other events that were schedule to take place in the latter half of 2020 were either postponed or cancelled. Tokyo Summer Olympics was rescheduled to take place in 2021

Amid all this, a video got viral on social media with a caption that says- “The fireworks were set off just before the opening ceremony of this year's Olympic Games in Japan. The Games cannot be held because of COVID-19, but the fireworks cannot be stored until 2021, so this is the time to show off the Olympic fireworks display. The Olympic fireworks display under the beautiful Mount Fuji is so spectacular, take a good look at the fireworks display ready for the Olympics” You can see a video posted by a Facebook user called Dhammika Wado on a group called “We are Sri Lankan Kiwi -We are Sriලාංකීක කිවී” with spectacular display of fireworks with mountain in the backdrop.

Link	Archived Link

We observed that this video post had gone viral in most of the social platforms in many parts of the world. Below is a Twitter post with the same claim

Fireworks were prepared for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Tokyo this year. The Olympics have been postponed till 2021 but these fireworks cannot be stored. So the display happened recently, with Mt Fuji as the backdrop. Enjoy! pic.twitter.com/SUt84rkiWk

— Gaurav Dalmia (@gdalmiathinks) August 21, 2020

Link	Archived Link

Here are some of other Facebook pages which have shared the viral video

Fact Check

A reverse image search and a related keyword search on Google led us to the original video on YouTube. The title of the YouTube video is “FWsim Mount Fuji Synchronized Fireworks Show2” and it was uploaded to YouTube on 1^st December 2015 by user hiramu55bocaboca. The description of the video says that this is a video generated from a computer simulation using FWsim. In response to the widespread popularity, this video had received over last few weeks, with false narratives relating to Tokyo Olympics, the original creator of the video had commented on the video and pinned it to the top of all comments. Below is the Google translated version of the original text in Japanese

“Recently, this video has been disseminated with false information such as Tokyo Olympics, but this is a simulation video.

★However, we use a lot of balls that look like real Japanese fireworks.

Japanese fireworks have the best technology in the world, and if you have money, you can launch amazing fireworks that are more than 100 times as impressive as this video.

However, as you know, the effects of COVID19 has devastated the fireworks industry.

To keep the world-class fireworks in Japan, thank you all for your funding, donations, and donations to the fireworks festival near you.

I hope everyone can smile and look up at the night sky with fireworks next year and again next year and in the future.”

FWsim is a computer simulator, which enables its users to create custom firework show as per their preference with favorite music and 3D backdrops along with realistic lighting and many other options, as per their official website.

Hence, it’s clear that the viral video is a computer generated video

Conclusion

Our fact-check proves that the video claimed to be Tokyo Olympic fireworks is actually a computer simulation that was created in 2015. Hence, we conclude that the Facebook posts sharing this video with the caption: “The fireworks were set off just before the opening ceremony of this year's Olympic Games in Japan..” are FALSE.