Did Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare just begin researching the effectiveness and safety of coronavirus vaccines, and did it announce it would take another three years to see the results? No, that's not true: According to the ministry, COVID-19 vaccines were approved in 2021 after rigorous evaluation of their effectiveness and safety in clinical trials. The claim appeared…

Did so-called directed energy weapons (DEW) using laser beam energy cause the wildfires in Maui, Hawaii, and the Wajima post-quake fires in Japan because only blue-colored objects, allegedly not impacted by lasers, survived the catastrophe? No, that's not true: Both fires were caused by different events. Hawaii's power utility fanned by severe winds caused the fires that destroyed areas of…

Did the earthquake with a magnitude of MJMA 7.6 (Mw 7.5) that occurred in Noto, Japan, on January 1, 2024, result in the malfunctioning of all the radiation monitoring posts situated around the Shiga nuclear power plant in Ishikawa prefecture? No, that's not true: There are over 100 radiation monitoring posts surrounding the nuclear power plant, and only a few…

Is former Japanese Minister Heizo Takenaka an ethnic Korean with connections to the Chinese Communist Party? No, that's not true: According to Heizo Takenaka's family tree, he is of full Japanese descent, not Korean. Takenaka's political career and education also oppose CCP beliefs and values as he was a hawkish orthodox economist who privatized the Japanese postal service and adopted…

Is Japan a "biological weapons powerhouse," as it approved the world's first self-amplifying mRNA (sa-RNA) COVID vaccine, whose efficacy and safety have not been disclosed? No, that's not true. Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) approved the sa-RNA vaccine for both initial vaccination and booster doses in adults 18 years and older in November 2023, after a rigorous…

Has the Japanese government announced plans to reduce the population to 80 million? No, that's not true: The claim is misleading and lacks context. The statement stems from the Population Strategy Council's recommendation, which suggests that by the year 2100, the current Japanese population of 125 million could be reduced to 63 million, due to population decline. In light of…

Is Japan the only developed country that shelters disaster victims in school gymnasiums? No, that's not true: the United States and many European countries also shelter people in gymnasiums. In particular, Japan does not shelter victims in school gymnasiums for long periods. Gymnasiums are used to shelter people during natural disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes. The government and municipalities…

Has influenza exceeded the alert level in Japan because 80 percent of the population have a weakened immune system due to COVID-19 vaccination? No, that's not true: One of the reasons for the high influenza level is a decline in herd immunity to influenza. The claim appeared in a video on TikTok on December 19, 2023, by user6144061382609. It began…

Were the houses shown in this video engulfed by the tsunami on New Year's Day 2024 in Noto, Japan? No, that's not true: The images used in this claim are from the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok on January 1, 2024. The captions in the video (translated from Japanese…

Does a video on TikTok show the aftermath of a New Year's day tsunami that caused severe damage to a town on Japan's Noto Peninsula? No, that's not true: The video of damage shown in the post is from tsunami damage caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. It's unrelated to the Noto earthquake that occurred on New…