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16 August 2022

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Japan

False 

False: Japan’s ex-PM Abe did not ‘answer a phone call’ in ambulance

21 July 202226 July 2022 2 min read

Shinzo Abe collapsed shortly after he was shot and fell unconscious. The misleading social media posts in Chinese appear to stem from inaccurate translations of a local news report.

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"FALSE" stamped on screenshots of Twitter and Instagram posts
COVID-19 False 

False: Japan’s Abe did not oversee vaccine rollout or distribute ivermectin

18 July 202222 July 2022 4 min read

A widely shared conspiracy theory suggested Japan’s former prime minister was assassinated because he disobeyed the World Economic Forum. Annie Lab looked into three specific claims and found all of them unsubstantiated.

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Fact check Misleading 

Misleading: Image sequence reversed to make watermelons appear stolen from Abe’s memorial

18 July 202221 July 2022 3 min read

Annie Lab reached out to a journalist who also took photos of the roadside memorial around the same time. The two slices of watermelon were placed later than the flowers on the ground.

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False 

False: Images of ‘smiling’ newscasters announcing Shinzo Abe’s death are doctored

15 July 202219 July 2022 5 min read

Annie Lab obtained the videos of original broadcast and can confirm the two anchors were not smiling. The doctored images were created by a photo editing app for mobile devices called FaceApp.

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Misleading 

Misleading: Video shows a rescue robot in Japan, not Communist Party’s ‘corpse picker’

14 July 202210 August 2022 2 min read

The Japanese rescue robot is called Robocue. The Tokyo Fire Department introduced it in 2009.

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False 

False: Olympics medal table with China on top is neither official nor authentic

10 August 20216 April 2022 4 min read

Misleading medal tables that show China with the most number of golds are doctored images.

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Japanese Prime Minister Suga's speech with fabricated subtitles
COVID-19 False 

False: Japanese prime minister did not say India will get medals for not coming to the Olympics

18 June 202127 July 2021 3 min read

The Chinese translation of Suga’s speech was fabricated. It has nothing to do with the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.

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False 

False: This simulation video does not show Japan’s treated water from Fukushima ‘polluting half of the Pacific ocean in 57 days’

25 May 202125 May 2021 3 min read

The video is nine years old and has nothing to do with Japan’s plan. The clip has also been cropped to make the covered area in the ocean appear bigger than in the original video. The speed of spreading is accelerated.

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COVID-19 Misleading 

Misleading: Number of confirmed COVID-19 cases at Japan’s airports does not correspond to domestic cases in China

8 January 202116 April 2021 8 min read

Annie Lab found the popular online calculation has no validity. Three datasets do not show what the claim implied at all.

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False 

False: Video depicting bus passengers screaming in terror is manipulated

29 June 202016 April 2021 6 min read

The audio track of panic-struck passenger voices was taken from a different video clip and added to this one.

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Analysis 

Analysis: Japan’s reported refusal to condemn China contradicts earlier statement expressing ‘serious concerns’ over national security law

10 June 202016 April 2021 5 min read

Japanese government earlier issued a statement expressing ‘serious concerns’ over China’s decision to impose a national security law in HK.

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Misleading 

Misleading: A photo showing Carrie Lam on her mobile phone was taken before the Japanese emperor enthronement ceremony began

22 October 20193 November 2021 5 min read

The TV screencap was taken while dignitaries and heads of state were still arriving.

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