Video of 2011 Japan tsunami resurfaces after New Year's Day quake in 2024

This article is more than one year old.
Published on January 3, 2024 at 09:59
3 min read
By Jan Cuyco, AFP Philippines

After a magnitude 7.5 earthquake hit the western coast of Japan on New Year's Day, a video was shared in social media posts that falsely claimed it showed tsunami waves submerging a street in Ishikawa prefecture. While waves at least 1.2 metres (four feet) high did hit a coastal city in Ishikawa, the video in fact shows footage captured during a devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in March 2011.

The video, which has been viewed over 57,000 times, was shared on Facebook here on January 2, 2024.

It shows a street rapidly turning into a raging torrent, and its caption suggests it was filmed in the central prefecture of Ishikawa as Japan was struck by a 7.5-magnitude earthquake on the first day of the new year.

The January 1 quake triggered tsunami waves more than a metre high, sparked a major fire and flattened houses.

At least 62 people have been confirmed dead while more than 300 were severely injured, according to local authorities.

All tsunami warnings were lifted after waves at least 1.2 metres (four feet) high hit the town of Wajima and a series of smaller tsunamis were reported elsewhere.

Screenshot of false Facebook post, captured on January 3, 2024

The false claim has also been shared elsewhere on Facebook, as well as on TikTok and its Chinese sibling app Douyin.

The video, however, is old and in fact shows footage from a tsunami that devastated Japan's northeastern coast in March 2011.

Footage from 2011 tsunami

A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to a YouTube video published by Japan's All-Nippon News Network (ANN) on January 17, 2020 (archived link).

The falsely shared video uses clips from within the first two minutes and forty seconds of ANN's footage.

The YouTube post's title reads: "Tsunami in Kesennuma city, Miyagi / Great East Japan Earthquake [11 Mar 2011]".

Below are screenshot comparisons of scenes from the false video (left) and the ANN footage at the five-second, 19-second and one-minute, 55-second marks, respectively (right):

Screenshot comparisons of the false video (left) and the video uploaded by ANN (right)

Similar footage from Kesennuma City can be seen at the 13-minute, 16-second mark of a video uploaded by YouTube channel "2011 Japan Tsunami Archives," which posts witness shots from the disaster (archived link).

The 2011 quake unleashed a powerful tsunami that left around 18,500 people dead or missing and levelled communities along Japan's northeastern coast.

The large blue building seen in the falsely shared video corresponds to Google Street View imagery from Uoichibamae, Kesennuma, Miyagi in eastern Japan (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison of the false video (left) and the Google Street View imagery from July 2011 (right), with the blue building highlighted by AFP:

Screenshot comparison of the false video (left) and the Google Street View imagery from July 2011 (right)

AFP has previously debunked footage falsely linked to the January 1 earthquake in Japan here and here.

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