Fact Check: Viral video claiming to show devastation by tsunami in Japan is not related to recent disaster
A powerful earthquake struck Central Japan, killing at least one person, destroying buildings and knocking out power to thousands of homes. Japan issued a major tsunami warning
Tsunami
A powerful earthquake struck Central Japan, killing at least one person, destroying buildings, and knocking out power to thousands of homes. Japan issued a major tsunami warning, but has later downgraded and eventually cut it to an advisory. A tsunami of about 3 meters (about 10 feet) high was expected to hit Niigata and other prefectures on the western coast of Japan.
Amidst this, a video showing seawater flooding and wiping off streets is shared on social media with the caption that it shows the tsunami visuals that occurred on January 1, 2024. The video shows three different visuals that show the devastation of a town by water.
Fact Check:
The claim that the visuals of the viral video show a tsunami that occurred recently in Japan is False. They show two different visuals of natural disasters that occurred several years ago.
When we extracted the keyframes from the video, we found three different visuals.
When we searched the first keyframe using Google reverse image search, we found several videos that were posted on YouTube which showed visuals from the tsunami that occurred in 2011.
A video published on March 29, 2011, with the title “Tsunami Japan 11/3/2011 by a channel named Impacto Marino, shows the viral visuals at 8.30 minutes.
It was also published on another YouTube channel in March 2011.
The second keyframe shows a landslide and water gushing onto a street from behind a brown house and burying houses, swamping cars.
When we searched the keyframe using Google reverse image search, we found that the video shows a devastating landslide that occurred in Japan in July 2021.
According to sun.co.uk, a horrifying landslide has left at least 20 people missing, two dead, and dozens of homes buried after crashing through a city in Japan. Shocking video shows the torrent of mud and water surging through Atami as the collapse swept away everything in its path.
Aljazeera reported that at least two people were killed and many others were reported missing on Saturday, after heavy rains hit Japan’s central city of Atami in Shizuoka, triggering landslides, according to the public broadcaster NHK.
The third key frame extracted from the viral video shows a mudslide gushing out carrying debris and mud crashing into the houses and burying them.
When we searched the keyframe using Google reverse image search, we found several articles relating it to the landslide that occurred in Atami in 2021.
According to nzherald.co.nz that shared the video, a powerful mudslide carrying a deluge of black water and debris crashed into rows of houses in a town west of Tokyo following heavy rains, leaving at least 19 people missing, officials said. Dozens of homes may have been buried in Atami, a town known for hot springs, said Shizuoka prefecture spokesman Takamichi Sugiyama. Public broadcaster NHK put the number of missing people at 20, but Sugiyama said the prefecture confirmed at least 19, although he said the number may grow.
The article on the landslide by sun.co.uk also shared the video, which confirms that the video shows the landslide in Atami, Japan in 2021 and does not belong to the recent earthquake in Japan in 2024.
Hence, the viral video has 3 different clippings that show various natural disasters but not the recent earthquake in Japan. The claim is False.