Is this a picture of protesters against the G7 summit in Hiroshima? No, that's not true: These protesters in Shibuya are demonstrating against the revision of immigration law.
Intentionally or not, the video has led many people to believe that this photo depicts protesters against the G7 summit in Hiroshima. As of May 26, 2023, there have been 710 comments, with only a few individuals recognizing that the depicted image does not align with its claim.
The claim appeared on TikTok video (archived here) on May 21, 2023, with the caption that reads:
Hiroshima G7 Summit
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Fri May 26 13:26:59 2023 UTC)
There are subtle indications within the picture that suggest something is amiss with the claim:
- The buildings in the background indicate that this is the famous intersection known as the Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo, not Hiroshima.
- The red placard held by a man in a mask in the right-hand corner reads, "Immigration."
- There are no policemen in the picture, not even one. At the G7 summit in Hiroshima, there were thousands of policemen on duty.
The picture was taken at the Shibuya Crossing on Sunday, May 21, 2023. According to the research paper on J-STAGE, Traffic Signal Control at Scramble Intersections by Deep Reinforcement Learning, the landmark has approximately 500,000 pedestrians a day. This clarifies the impression of there being millions of protesters.
The picture was taken by Journalist and media activist, Daisuke Tsuda and the original post appeared on his Twitter account. He was reporting on the story in his capacity as a journalist.
The caption reads, Shibuya Hachiko-mae (the famous square by the Shibuya crossing) 7 pm. The Tweet had 180,000 likes and 7,381 re-tweets as of May 26, 2023. The caption doesn't explain what the demonstration is, but he retweeted a tweet by the Shibuya Demonstration Executive Committee, which is against immigration law.
At 3:30 pm on May 21, 2023, the Shibuya Demonstration Executive Committee put together the "Demonstration in Shibuya against the revision of immigration law" rally at the United Nations University and walked to Shibuya after the rally.
5:30 pm on May 21, 2023, a group known as #FREEUSHIKU, who believes the Immigration Law Amendment Bill violates human rights, organized a demonstration in Shibuya.
