Global Markets
Home›Global Markets›Asia›Conspiracy misinformation spreads online after Japan’s…
Conspiracy misinformation spreads online after Japan’s quake and wartime anniversaries
One claim tied the July 28 magnitude 7.1 Kumamoto earthquake to an alleged “artificial explosion” waveform, while other viral posts challenged Hiroshima and Nagasaki accounts and drew up to 1 million views.
Misinformation experts in Japan say outlandish conspiracy claims have gained large audiences online in recent days, following both a major earthquake and sensitive wartime anniversaries, according to SCMP Economy.
In the aftermath of the July 28 magnitude 7.1 quake in Kumamoto prefecture, a social media user posted that seismic data from Japan’s National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience showed the tremor was “not an earthquake but an artificial explosion waveform.” The post was highlighted by Yahoo Japan real-time search as a popular item, with more than 2,100 reposts and 6,300 likes.
SCMP Economy also reports that other posts pushed a related theory that the quake was triggered by HAARP, an Alaska research facility that has long been a focus of disaster-related conspiracy narratives.
Days later, as Japan marked the August anniversaries of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings and the end of World War II, NHK said denial claims were also spreading online. Some posts on X and TikTok drew more than 1 million views, and SCMP Economy notes that a YouTube video claiming the atomic bombing was a lie attracted more than 300,000 views, with Yuzuru Kido saying these narratives lack scientific basis but take hold in different contexts.