AI clip about 'Japan is back' slogan misleads Chinese users
- Published on October 31, 2025 at 07:52
- Updated on October 31, 2025 at 07:54
- 3 min read
- By Sammy HEUNG, AFP Hong Kong
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Japan's new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has revived the slogan "Japan is back" during her party leadership campaign, but there is no evidence the phrase has been popularly shortened to "JIBA" contrary to online posts. A supposed news report depicting Takaichi's supporters holding "JIBA" banners spread widely among Chinese social media users, who mocked the acronym for resembling a Chinese insult word. The clip is in fact AI-generated.
"The right wing in the United States call it 'MAGA' -- 'Make America Great Again'. The group of right-wing Japanese politicians led by Sanae Takaichi call it 'JIBA', 'Japan is Back'," reads a Douyin post written in simplified Chinese and shared October 16, 2025.
It features a screenshot of what looks like news footage showing people holding banners that say "JIBA". The ticker reads, "'JIBA' JAPAN IS BACK".
A short video earlier posted on Facebook includes the image on Douyin, and depicts a news anchor saying: "In the United States, the phrase Make America Great Again reshaped politics."
"Now a similar rallying cry is resonating in Japan. 'JIBA', short for Japan is back."
The video then cuts to several people wearing "MAGA" caps, and two scenes with people carrying "JIBA" banners.
Similar posts racked up more than 12,600 likes on Douyin, and also surfaced on Threads, X, TikTok, Instagram and Bilibili. Other posts meanwhile discussed the use of "JIBA" by Japanese politicians without including visuals.
In Chinese, "jiba" refers to the male genital and is sometimes used as an insult.
Some users seemed to believe the claim is genuine, with one saying: "It sounds like an insult, which is quite fitting". Another wrote: "That is good. It means that there is no Chinese people in her team".
Takaichi, a China hawk, was named Japan's first woman prime minister on October 20 (archived link).
She previously said that "Japan is completely looked down on by China", and that Tokyo must "address the security threat" posed by Beijing but has since toned down her rhetoric.
When she announced her candidacy on September 19, the 64-year-old conservative said: "Japan must once again loudly proclaim 'Japan is back'. I want to strengthen Japan's national power as someone who truly loves Japan and the Japanese people" (archived link).
The slogan was used in 2013 by ex-prime minister and Takaichi's political mentor Shinzo Abe who was gunned down in an attack that shocked the world (archived link).
However, a keyword search found no official reports about the popular use of the "JIBA" acronym among Japanese politicians or their supporters.
A reverse image search on Google surfaced a video on Douyin on October 5 with the same caption used in some false posts.
Douyin added a note to the post warning that the clip may be AI-generated.
The watermark of "Sora" -- OpenAI's text-to-video AI model -- is also visible.
Moreover, an analysis of the video found visual errors that indicate it is not authentic.
The English-language news ticker includes several meaningless words, while Japanese characters on some banners are nonsensical.
In one banner, the year "2024" has been wrongly written as "22024".
Several people also appear to have unnatural or mushed facial features. One of the men's jackets is missing a lapel.
AFP has debunked more Chinese-language misinformation about Japan here and here.
Updated metadataOctober 31, 2025 Updated metadata
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