Old images and videos got shared as recent earthquake in Japan

Last week, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has cancelled his planned visit to Central Asia due to an increased risk of a major earthquake along Japan’s Pacific coast. This decision follows a magnitude 7.1 earthquake that struck the southwestern island of Kyushu. The Japan Meteorological Agency issued its first-ever warning of a heightened risk for a significant earthquake in the Nankai Trough, prompting Kishida to stay in Japan to oversee preparations and communications. (Source: The Guardian)

Amidst this alarming event, pictures and videos are circulating on social media platforms, claiming to be from Japan a few days ago.

Social Media Posts

Recently, multiple Facebook and Instagram users have shared photos and videos, claiming they are from the earthquake in Japan on August 8th.

Source | Archive

Source | Archive

Source | Archive

However, after fact-checking, we found that some of the images and videos were not from the recent earthquake events as claimed.

Fact Check

We conducted a fact-check using the Reverse Image Search feature to trace the origin of the images and videos in question. Here are the results of our investigation:

Image 1: 2011 tsunami event in Rikuzentakata. This image is from National Geographic's photo archive in an article about the tsunami published in 2013, taken by Tamon Suzuki. Read the article here.

Image 2: Image of the tsunami event in Miyako in 2011, taken by Mainichi Shimbun and provided by Reuters. You can view more images of the event from Reuters here.

Image 3: Image of the earthquake event in Japan during the New Year 2024. The image shows a road with large cracks caused by the damage. This photo was taken in the city of Noto, located in the northwestern part of Tokyo.

Picture by: AP

Videos from the 2024 Japan earthquake and the 2011 Tsunami are being shared as recent.

Video showing roads damaged by the earthquake event, filmed in Japan during the same earthquake event in January 2024 (Source: Dailymail).

Additionally, the video of people taking shelter during the earthquake at a bowling alley and the video capturing the parking lot at the train station during the earthquake are from the same event that occurred last January.

Source : CNN

Source: Sambatimes

Footage of black waves crashing onto the shore also comes from the 2011 major tsunami event in Japan. The tsunami caused a malfunction at the nuclear power plant. Read more here.

Summary

Posts on social media with images and videos claiming to be from the latest earthquake in Japan are misleading. These images and videos are from past earthquake and tsunami events in Japan, including the 2011 tsunami and the earthquake in January 2024.