Old footage of a tsunami that struck a city in Japan’s eastern Miyagi Prefecture in 2011 has been viewed more than a million times. It was falsely claimed to have been recorded after a major earthquake in August 2024. Authorities say only small tsunamis have been recorded after the recent earthquake in southern Japan.
“JAPAN MAGNITUDE 7.1 AFTERMATH,” reads the caption above a four-minute Facebook video that has been viewed more than 1.5 million times since it was posted on August 11, 2024.
The footage appears to have been filmed from a rooftop and shows cars being swept away by the mass of water.
The text at the bottom of the video reads: “TSUNAMI EARTHQUAKE.”
The caption referred to a 7.1 magnitude earthquake that struck southern Japan on August 8. No major damage was reported and only relatively small tsunami waves hit the coast (archived link).
Authorities warned of a possible “megaquake” after the tremor, which subsided a week later.
The video was also shared with a similar false claim on Facebook and YouTube.
But it doesn’t show a recent tsunami. The clip was shot during the worst natural disaster in Japan’s living memory: the massive earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown of March 11, 2011, which left more than 18,500 people dead or missing.
Old tsunami images
AFP previously debunked reports that wrongly linked the clip to the collapse of a hydroelectric plant in Laos and a storm in Japan.
The clip matches footage published on YouTube by Fuji News Network (FNN) in October 2012, with a watermark indicating that the photo was taken on March 11, 2011, in the city of Ishinomaki in eastern Japan’s Miyagi Prefecture (archived link).
The caption of the YouTube video states that it was filmed by an employee from the roof of the Ishinomaki Gas Building.
Below is a screenshot of the video in the fake messages (left) and the FNN footage (right):
The location of the video matches Google Maps images showing the three blue tubular towers and two blue spherical structures from the Ishinomaki Gas office (archived link).
Below is a screenshot of a comparison of the structures in the FNN video (left) and the location on Google Maps (right), with the similarities highlighted by AFP:
