Is it true that the Japanese government is using smart city targets to plan the location of where forest fires will occur? No, that's not true: According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transportation and Tourism, one of the preventive measures in the blueprint of the proposed smart cities, is to ensure that forest fires don't happen. The claim appeared…

Did Japanese politicians state that the COVID-19 vaccine mandate was a human experiment? No, that's not true: The claim circulating on social media misquotes and takes out of context a bill presented by the Democratic Party of Japan - an opposition party - acknowledging those who were harmed by COVID vaccine's side effects. The false allegations were first shared by…

Did the Fukushima nuclear power plant discharge contaminated water directly into the ocean? No, that's not true: The water from the nuclear power station wrecked by the 2011 tsunami that hit Japan is released into the ocean after purification, repurification and dilution. The claim appeared in a TikTok video (archived here) published on August 27, 2023. The text (translated from…

Did the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare change its logo to make it look like the Unification Church's emblem, implying a connection between the government and the controversial church founded by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon? No, that's not true: The ministry's current logo was the result of an open call for designers across the country to submit…

Is it true that green tea candy can cure COVID-19? No, that's not true: Commercially sold green tea candies are mostly cough drops, and their catechin content cannot fight COVID alone. The claim appeared in a TikTok video (archived here) on August 18, 2023. The video discusses catechin, a chemical substance found in green tea, and claims that a study…

Did Bill Gates and the Gates Foundation buy farmland in the United States to grow genetically modified tomatoes that are tested on schoolchildren? No, that's not true: Tomatoes are not among a list of one dozen crops or foods approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency to be grown, tested…

Did Japan help create the atomic bomb? No, that's not true: The U.S. program to develop the world's first atomic bomb under the code name Manhattan Project did not involve Japanese scientists, according to US historical documents. The claim appeared on TikTok (archived here) on July 22, 2023, with a man named Hiroshi Iki, talking about modern technology developed by…

Were most Japanese Prime Ministers since the end of World War II ethnic Koreans? No, that's not true: Most Prime Ministers were related to prominent Japanese families and politicians in the post-war period, others had no such ties to political families, but family tree documents identified the Japanese ancestry of each leader. The claim appeared on TikTok (archived here) on…

Did Kishi Nobusuke, the former prime minister of Japan in 1958-1960 (and the grandfather of Shinzo Abe, also the former prime minister of Japan from 2012-2020), lead the Japanese human medical testing in a secret project called Unit 731 during the 1930s and 40s near Harbin in Japanese-occupied Manchuria? No, that's not true: Unit 731 was led by Lieutenant General…

Did Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida say that "all the money that's being donated to Ukraine comes from Japanese taxpayers" at a recent NATO summit? No, that's not true: The video circulating on TikTok is an altered version of Kishida's original Vilnius Summit address in July 2023, dubbed with a different audio. The claim appeared in a TikTok video (archived…

Is the Yomiuri newspaper a CIA-owned news outlet? No, that's not true: the former owner of Yomiuri newspaper, Matsutaro Shoriki, just so happened to be a CIA cooperative, but his actions with the CIA have nothing to do with the foundation and the current activities of the publication. The claim initially appeared on a video (archived here) published on TikTok…

Will the Japanese no longer eat vegetables if three multinational seed producers stop selling F1 (Filial 1 hybrid) vegetable seeds to Japan? No, that's not true: Japan is not solely dependent on the top three seed companies, Bayer, Syngenta, and DowDuPont to meet its domestic vegetable production needs. The claim appeared on a TikTok video (archived here) on August 4,…

Is it true that the Moonshot project encourages class disparities in Japanese society by enabling one person to control and operate 10 robots? No, that's not true: In the project's introduction video which explains the first of its 9 goals, head researcher Norihiro Hagita says that he takes the example of controlling 10 robots as a metaphor to describe the…

Is the Mosaic Virus Vaccine for plants poisoning the crop yields of cucumbers and zucchini in Japan? No, that's not true: The Ministry of Agriculture has confirmed that the vaccine has no effect on the growth of several types of cucumber seedlings. The claim initially appeared on TikTok (archived here) on July 27, 2023. The video shows a group of…

When Prime Minister Kishida met with Zelenskyy, did he promise not only financial assistance of 730 billion yen (7.1 billion USD by the time of writing) but also the deployment of 3,000 self-defense force personnel? No, that's not true: The content of Prime Minister Kishida's meeting with Zelenskyy and Kishida's promises are made public on the website of the Ministry…

Is Bill Gates genetically modifying mosquitoes to turn them into "flying, airborne vaccines?" No, that's not true: Oxitec and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are testing genetically-modified mosquitoes to reduce mosquito populations and prevent the spread of Zika and malaria, they are not creating "flying syringes." The claim appeared in a video published on TikTok (archived here) on June…

Did foreign countries ban the sale of "Healthia" tea because it's harmful to the liver? No, that's not true: Kao Cosmetics, the company that produces "Healthia" and other lines of tea, responded in a Q&A segment that their products have fallen under the Food Security guidelines for the past ten years. Furthermore, the sale of "Healthia" is not banned in…

Is it true that Kurds cannot distinguish right from wrong or do not have any self-control because their average IQ of 85 "is borderline"? No, that's not true: Depending on the source, the number is slightly different, but an IQ from 85 to 114 is considered to indicate an average intelligence. Also, the IQ score is not necessarily linked to…

Did China ban imports of Japanese seafood products? No, that's not true: Japanese seafood can still be exported to China with a certificate of origin and an inspection certificate. However, China has restricted seafood products from 10 of Japan's 47 prefectures in advance of an expected release of treated wastewater from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant, and it has…

Is it true that Japan deliberately failed to broadcast the Russian Fleet's presence in the Tsugaru Strait? No, that's not true: News about Russian and Chinese military ships crossing the Tsugaru Strait had been actively broadcast and talked about in the news since its first reported sighting in 2021. The claim appeared on TikTok (archived here) on July 23, 2023,…