The messages appeared online a day after a powerful 7.1 magnitude On August 8, 2024, an earthquake struck Miyazaki Prefecture in southwestern Japan. No major damage was reported and only relatively small tsunami waves hit the coast (archived link).
The country’s weather agency said the possibility of a major earthquake was increased after the tremor, which injured at least 15 people. However, the megaquake warning was lifted on August 15 (archived link).
The same video has also been shared with similar claims in several languages ​​including Korean, Filipino, Burmese and Chinese.
The footage first circulated online in January 2024 and shows a separate earthquake incident in Ishikawa, a prefecture in central Japan.
earthquake of january 1
A reverse image search using the video thumbnail in combination with keyword searches on Google yielded a similar longer images published on the Getty Images website (archived link).
Part of the caption read: “Japan: People hide under tables at bowling alley in Ishikawa during magnitude 7.5 earthquake. A strong earthquake struck the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture on January 1.”
The video was credited to Spectee, which describes itself as a UGC aggregation service provider specialize on real-time disaster communication in Japan (archived link).
Below is a screenshot of the Facebook post (left) and the video Spectee published (right):
International media outlets such as CNN and Al Jazeera also used the same video in their reporting on the earthquake that hit Japan in January. 1 (archived links here and here).
AFP has previously debunked misinformation regarding the August 2024 Japan earthquake here, here and here.
