Disaster Fact Checks

FALSE: Photos after 2 earthquakes in Japan in February 2021

Rappler.com

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FALSE: Photos after 2 earthquakes in Japan in February 2021
The photos show damage brought about by earthquakes that occurred in April 2016
At a glance:
  • Claim: Photos show the destruction in Japan after two nights of earthquakes in February 2021.
  • Rating: FALSE
  • The facts: The photos show damage brought about by earthquakes that occurred in April 2016.
  • Why we fact-checked this: This claim was flagged by Facebook Claim Check, a tool that monitors dubious content on the platform. The post had acquired 15,000 reactions, 452 comments, and 1,900 shares as of writing.
Complete details:

A post with photos of destroyed structures says people in Japan have been sleeping in their cars after two nights of earthquakes, falsely claiming that this occurred in February 2021.

The post included details of two earthquakes experienced by residents of the Japanese town Ozu.

On February 13, a day before this post was made, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake hit off the coast of eastern Japan, shaking buildings and triggering blackouts but otherwise causing no apparent major damage. In the comments section of this post, many people wished for the safety of the people of Japan.

This claim was flagged by Facebook Claim Check, a tool that monitors dubious content on the platform. The post had acquired 15,000 reactions, 452 comments, and 1,900 shares as of writing.

The claim is false. The description and photos in the post show damage brought about by earthquakes that occurred in Japan in April 2016.

The details found in the post’s caption were lifted almost word-for-word from an Associated Press (AP) News article published on April 17, 2016, entitled, “Some sleep in cars after 2 nights of quakes kill 41 in Japan.”

A reverse image search also showed that two of the photos in the post were published in a CNN article dated April 16, 2016, entitled, “Japan earthquake kills nine; more aftershocks expected.”

One photo was taken by Yusuke Ogata and captioned, “Damaged houses are seen after an earthquake in Mashiki. ‘This is the worst thing that could happen to us,’ said Shigeru Morita, an official in the town.”

The other photo was taken by Koji Euda, captioned, “A police rescue team searches a damaged house for earthquake survivors Friday, April 15, in Mashiki, Japan.”

Another photo in the post was from a video report on the April 2016 earthquakes in Japan, published on ABC News. Meanwhile, another photo was contained in an article posted on July 5, 2018 on Nippon.com, a website produced by the Nippon Communications Foundation. It was captioned, “Houses that collapsed in the April 2016 Kumamoto earthquake. © Jiji.” – Loreben Tuquero/Rappler.com

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