In the wake of an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 that hit Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido on 25 February 2023, multiple videos and images are being shared on social media stating that they show recent visuals from the earthquake-hit Hokkaido Island in Japan. Those posts can be seen here, here, here, here and here. Let’s verify the claims made by these posts.
Claim: Videos and photos showing the recent visuals from the earthquake-hit Hokkaido Island in Japan.
Fact: All these posts shared old videos and pictures taken during the past earthquakes in Japan and Taiwan. These posts do not show the latest videos and pictures from the earthquake-hit Hokkaido. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
Social media users were sharing this video claiming it shows the tremors felt during the recent earthquake in Japan’s Hokkaido Island. On reverse image search of the screenshots of the video, a video with similar visuals was found published by a YouTube channel in February 2021. This YouTube channel described it as the visuals showing the tremors felt during the earthquake in Japan’s Fukushima in 2021. Many news agencies and journalists shared this video in February 2021.
On reverse image search, a video with similar visuals was found published by the ‘ANNnewsCH’ YouTube channel on 17 January 2020. The description of the video states, “Tsunami, Great East Japan Earthquake, Sendai airport, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan [11 Mar 2011]”. The video shows the tremors felt during the 2011 earthquake in Japan.
On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, the same photo was found published on the ‘Alamy’ website with the description, “OFUNATO, Japan (March 15, 2011) A fishing boat is among debris in Ofunato, Japan, following a 9.0 magnitude earthquake & tsunami”. Britannica and a few other websites have also published this image confirming it to be a picture showing the wreckage after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in 2011.
On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, the same photo was found in an article published by ‘The Sun’ website on 18 September 2022. The description of the photo states, “A collapsed building following the earthquake in Taiwan”. ‘Zee Hindustan’ and a few other news websites have also shared this image of the collapsed building and confirmed it as wreckage from the 2022 earthquake in Taiwan.
On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, the same photo was found in an article published by the ‘International Business Times’ news website on 16 April 2016. The description of the photo states, “The aerial view shows a collapsed road after an earthquake in Minami-Aso, Kumamoto prefecture, Japan, April 16, 2016”.
To sum it up, multiple old videos and pictures are being shared as visuals from the recent earthquake that hit Hokkaido Island in Japan.
