Video shows Japanese pupils singing Chinese song at cherry blossom festival, not for China's national day

On China's National Day on October 1, Chinese posts dismissing Japan's sovereignty over Okinawa repeatedly shared an old video they falsely claimed showed Japanese students celebrating the event. However, it actually shows pupils from a school near Tokyo performing a Chinese song at a local cherry blossom festival in April 2018.

"On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, high school students from the Ryukyu Islands sang 'Ode to the Motherland'," read a simplified Chinese X post that shared the video on October 1.

"They share the same roots and ethnicity as the Chinese. We look forward to their return to the embrace of the motherland as soon as possible."

The post referred to the region now called Okinawa -- the centre of the Ryukyuan kingdom that paid tribute to Chinese emperors until it was absorbed by Japan in 1879.

Some Chinese see historical ties as a basis to dismiss Japan's sovereignty over the islands as a legacy of its aggressive expansionism that ended in defeat at the end of World War II.

President Xi Jinping made his first public comments on the region in June 2023, referencing China's "deep connection" to the islands, the state-run People's Daily reported (archived link). 

The video, which shows a girl singing in Chinese in front of an orchestra, is overlaid with text that says it shows students from "Ryukyu High School" performing "Ode to the Motherland" at a park in Kashiwa -- a city northeast of Tokyo.

It also shows an X post from China's foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying about the limits of Japan's sovereignty, quoting from the Potsdam Declaration that demanded Japan's unconditional surrender in World War II (archived link).

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Screenshot of the false X post, captured on October 15, 2024

Similar claims were also shared on X, Facebook and Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.

The video circulating online, however, does not show pupils from Okinawa performing on China's national day.

Festival performance

A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the video found a longer clip of the performance posted on YouTube on April 9, 2018 (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison of the false post (left) and the YouTube clip from 2018 (right):

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Screenshot comparison of the false post (left) and the YouTube clip (right)

The video's Japanese-language title reads: "Kashiwa Municipal High School Wind Orchestra - Ode to the Motherland".

The song was performed at the Akebonoyama Park Cherry Blossom Festival, according to the video description.

The festival is organised annually by the Kashiwa City Tourism Association. A timetable of events from April 7 and April 8, 2018 includes a performance from pupils from Kashiwa Municipal High School (archived link).

Kashiwa Municipal High School Wind Orchestra's Facebook page posted photos from the festival on April 8, 2018 (archived link).

The students also performed the Chinese song "Jasmine Flower" at the opening of the Shanghai International Spring Music Festival three weeks later.

Photos from the performance were also posted on the orchestra’s Facebook page on April 30, 2018 (archived link).

Chinese state media also reported on the concert, praising the choir's "continuous practice" to achieve "clear pronunciation" of the classic Chinese song (archived link).