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VERA FILES FACT CHECK: OLD videos passed off as scenes from recent Japan quake

Video shows footage of Jan. 1, 2024 Japan earthquake

Facebook netizen (John Paulo Alfonso) 01/06/2024 False

The compilation video used clips of tsunami and landslides that hit Japan in 2011 and 2021 respectively.

Another compilation video bore clips from previous calamities to falsely claim that it shows scenes from the magnitude 7.6 quake that jolted Japan on New Year’s Day. 

On Jan. 4, a Filipino TikTok user uploaded a one-minute and six-second video composed of three clips of tsunami and landslides in Japan supposedly on Jan. 1. Its caption read:

Ang unang kalamidad ng mundo ngayong taon 2024 (The first calamity in the world this year 2024). Japan Tsunami after big earthquake #japantsunami2024 #japanearthquake #japan #tsunami #earthquake.”

Another Filipino netizen posted the same clip on Facebook (FB) two days later.

This is false. The clips in the compilation video show a 2011 tsunami and 2021 landslides in Japan. 

The clips in this compilation video show tsunami and landslides that hit Japan in 2011 and 2021 respectively.

The circulating false clip started with a video of a tsunami in a port in Japan after the magnitude 9.1 Tohoku quake on March 11, 2011.

It was taken from a nine-minute video uploaded by YouTube channel wngad869 on March 18, 2011. The YouTube video’s caption and description further state that it happened at a fishing port in Oirase town in the Aomori Prefecture.

Note: Click on the photos to view their original source.

The last two clips show massive mudslides caused by heavy rains sweeping away infrastructure in the seaside city of Atami on July 3, 2021. These were grabbed from an Aug. 3, 2021 compilation video uploaded by The Asahi Shimbun Company’s YouTube channel.

X (formerly Twitter) user @hanketsuouji and @522Kmkm uploaded the original mudslide clips on July 3.

The false compilation video was posted four days after the Noto Peninsula quake that left 168 people dead and 323 still missing, according to Jan. 8 reports

VERA Files Fact Check debunked another compilation video that misrepresented old clips as “footage” of the Jan. 1 quake. (Read Video compilation shows old events, NOT Jan. 1 earthquake in Japan)

TikTok user bruna490’s video has 7,163 reactions, 207 comments, 1697 shares and 472,900 views as of writing. The reposted on FB video meanwhile garnered 5,700 reactions, 119 comments, 821 shares and 1,200,000 views.

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(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)