By Devesh MISHRA, factcheck.afp
After Japan's northern coast was rocked by a magnitude 7.5 quake on December 8, videos purportedly showing the impact of the tremor were falsely shared on social media. The clips in fact show a street and a car park shaken by another powerful quake that struck central Japan on New Year's Day in 2024.
"Devastating news from Japan -- a powerful M7.6 quake has struck, tsunami waves up to 10 ft feared," reads the caption of an Instagram video shared on December 8, 2025.
The video, filmed from street level, shows an earthquake violently shaking buildings and electricity poles.
Another video shared on Facebook on December 9 shows a tremor in a parking lot, rocking parked vehicles and setting off car alarms.
"Strong earthquake in Japan, tsunami alert after 7.6 magnitude tremor, warning of waves more than 10 feet high," reads its Hindi-language caption.
The clips were shared after a magnitude 7.5 quake -- downgraded from its first reading of 7.6 -- struck off the coast of the northern region of Aomori and shook buildings, tore apart roads, smashed windows and triggered tsunami waves up to 70 centimetres (28 inches) high (archived link).
Authorities said 51 people were injured, and warned an even bigger tremor was possible in coming days.
The video of the shaking street was also shared on the verified YouTube channel of Indian news organisation 4tv News Channel.
The clip taken in the parking lot was also shared in similar X posts in French and Hindi.
But both clips predate the December tremor, and in fact show another strong earthquake that struck central Japan at the beginning of 2024.
New Year's Day quake
The first falsely shared video was debunked earlier by AFP when it spread in Spanish-language posts.
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the video showed it had previously circulated online on the official YouTube channel of Japanese media outlet MBS News on January 11, 2024 (archived link).
The video has been cropped and mirrored in the false posts.
The MBS News video's Japanese-language description says it was filmed from inside a car in Anamizu Town, Ishikawa Prefecture, when an earthquake struck. The footage also matches Google Street View imagery of the area (archived link).
The magnitude-7.5 earthquake and its aftershocks devastated parts of the Ishikawa region on the Sea of Japan coast, toppling buildings, ripping up roads, and sparking a major fire (archived link).
The earthquake on New Year's Day 2024 was Japan's deadliest in over a decade, claiming nearly 470 lives (archived link).
Another reverse image search using keyframes from the second falsely shared video found MBS News had also shared it on YouTube on January 2, 2024 (archived link).
Its Japanese-language description says it shows a shopping centre's parking lot in Toyama Prefecture at the moment of the earthquake on January 1, 2024.
The video was also shared by BBC News and The Guardian in January 2024 (archived here and here).
AFP has debunked other misinformation stemming from the December 2025 earthquake.
