International

Is it true that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida left Japan following a major earthquake advisory issued on August 8, 2024? No, that's not true: Kishida was scheduled to be in Eurasia from August 9 to 12, 2024, but he decided to cancel his visit after an advisory on the potential threat of a severe upcoming earthquake in the Nankai Trough…

Did Americans "steal" the Kuril and Sakhalin Islands from Japan instead of the Soviet Union taking over those territories at the end of World War II? No, that's not true: The decision to take Imperial Japan's Northern Territories had already been agreed on at the Yalta Conference in 1945, as a condition for the Soviet Union to join the offensive…

Is Pfizer selling medicine that cannot be sold in the United States to Japan, such as Lyrica (pregabalin)? No, that's not true: Lyrica has been FDA-approved since 2004 to treat neuropathic pain, and the prescription use for pregabalin by Pfizer was conducted in Japan in collaboration with renowned Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai in June 2010 to treat postherpetic neuralgia, meaning…

Does natto (fermented soybeans) increase the risk of cancer, depending on how it is consumed? No, that's not true: Contrary to a claim circulating on social media, high intakes of fermented soybean foods have been associated with a lower risk of death. Also, no evidence suggests that eating natto in specific ways causes cancer. The claim appeared in a video…

Is it true that Japan is responsible for manufacturing Korea's passports and creating the IC chips embedded inside them? No, that's not true: Passports are tightly controlled by the country of issue, which manufactures and prints them in either public or private firms headquartered in the country where the passport is issued, and IC technology has been commonly used in…

Did Japanese telecommunication corporation Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East (NTT East) build the largest nuclear fallout shelter in the world and conceal it by claiming it is an underground telecommunication facility? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that the NTT East underground tunnel systems were created to provide a nuclear fallout shelter. The NTT East underground tunnels are…

Is it true that the Empire of Japan was the strongest maritime empire in the world and owned a quarter of the world at its peak? No, that's not true: At its peak, the British Empire controlled a quarter of the globe, dwarfing the territorial extent of the Empire of Japan during World War II, which comprised only 5 percent…

Does the Japanese Children and Families Agency receive an exaggerated budget to pay 6.34 million yen (42,534 USD) per baby? No, that's not true: The allocation of budget funds is clearly defined in the 2024 draft budget of the Children and Families Agency. According to the definition of the Children and Families Agency, the category of children includes every person…

Did the United Nations (UN) recognize Japan as a poor country? No, that's not true: The UN's Prevalence of Undernourishment (PoU) survey, which provides data used to produce the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Hunger Map, does not show that Japan is undernourished. A social media post, which featured this map, falsely translates "hunger map" to mean "poor country." The…

Was Japanese actor Hiroshi Tachi involved in idol/singer Yukiko Okada's suicide? No, that's not true: The alleged relationship between Tachi and Okada, along with various aspects surrounding her suicide, were fabricated by Japanese tabloids during the late 1980s. Testimony from her former manager, Tokio Fukuda, alongside a salvaged diary entry that outlines her suicide note, confirmed that one of the…

Is it true that neonicotinoid pesticides cause autism in children? No, that's not true: While one study shows that pesticide exposure may be associated with adverse neurodevelopmental effects in children, this is not true for neonicotinoids. While neonicotinoids can be neurologically toxic and can cause respiratory failure in humans, there is no evidence that neonicotinoids can cause autism in humans…

Is it true that the number of breast cancer patients is rapidly rising in Japan because the radiation in mammograms causes cancer? No, that's not true: Though there are risk factors involved with radiation injuries and radiation-induced breast cancer post-screening, the amount of radiation absorbed by the body in annual mammogram screenings poses minimal risk of developing into breast cancer.…

Is it true that Korea was not considered a colony by Imperial Japan because Koreans were granted Japanese citizenship? No, that's not true: Although Koreans were issued Japanese citizenship following Japan's annexation of Korea in 1910, Japanese Imperial rule of Korea starting with the forceful removal of a Korean emperor, a military-supported occupation of the country, a practice of land…

Do people accessing any NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) content through their smartphones have to pay NHK's reception fees? No, that's not true: Simply owning a smartphone and having access to NHK's online content does not mean you have to pay for NHK's reception fees. The fees are only required if you have a television or a device directly connected to…

Is it true that Osaka's governor sold permanent residency in Japan to foreign investors in advance of the 2025 Osaka Expo? No, that's not true: Although some foreign investors wishing to invest in Osaka's economy in advance of the Expo may gain permanent residency status by meeting requirements on the amount and the period of their investments in Japan, this…

Do the different colors of the Japanese health insurance card depend on one's income level? No, that's not true: The purpose of having different colors for the health insurance card is not to classify people based on income, but rather to show the type of health insurance that people have. The claim first appeared on TikTok (archived here) by @user1840881173401…

Did a Japanese organization send North Korean mercenaries to Vietnam during the Vietnam War? No, that's not true: Japanese citizens could not participate in the Vietnam War because of the country's constitutional "No War Clause" adopted after WWII, and diplomatically, Japan was allied with South Vietnam and the United States during the conflict. The claim appeared in a TikTok post…

Is it true that a body temperature of 40 degrees Celsius, or 104 degrees Fahrenheit, can kill all cancer cells? No, that's not true: A fever can be a symptom of all cancers and a medical emergency during chemotherapy. Additionally, the temperature for effective hyperthermia, a treatment that involves heating the body, requires a temperature of 45 degrees Celsius, or…

Is it true that Japanese mathematicians, using an old Japanese model of mathematical problem solving that was replaced by Western models, could have solved the mysteries of black holes in space and invented a time travel machine? No, that's not true: Wasan, a Japanese school of mathematics used up to the 1800s based on ancient Chinese mathematics, did not involve…

Is it true that airplanes don't fly over Antarctica because there is a wall separating our world from a hidden world controlled by rich elites like the Rothschild family? No, that's not true: There are flights to Antarctica, but the reason many planes don't fly over Antarctica is that all current commercial routes don't need to cross the South Pole.…