False Videos Spread After Strong Earthquake in Japan on April 20, 2026

Apr 24, 2026, 09:00

Introduction

On April 20, 2026, a strong earthquake hit northern Japan. The earthquake made tsunami waves. The waves were 80 centimeters high at a port in Kuji. The earthquake also shook big buildings in Tokyo. After the earthquake, people shared videos on social media. The videos said they showed the earthquake. But people checked the videos. They found the videos were not real. Some videos were from older earthquakes. Some videos were made by a computer.

Main Body

Some videos had Thai words. They said the videos showed the April 20 earthquake. But the videos were from two older earthquakes. The first video showed a shop falling down. Someone posted it on TikTok on May 7, 2025. The video was from March 28, 2025. On that day, a strong earthquake hit Myanmar. More than 3,800 people died. The shop''s Facebook page said the building fell because of the earthquake. The second video showed people in a shoe store. Someone posted it on Instagram on January 1, 2024. This video was from the Noto Peninsula earthquake in Japan. That earthquake killed more than 700 people. A longer version of this video was on YouTube. It showed the store was Mitsui Outlet Park in Oyabe. A news group called AFP said these videos were false before. People used them for earthquakes in Russia and the Philippines in 2025. Other videos showed tall buildings moving at a street crossing. The videos said it was a 7.4 earthquake in Japan. But someone posted this video on TikTok on December 15, 2025. That was before the April 20 earthquake. The person who posted it often makes videos with a computer. People looked at the video carefully. They saw strange things. The writing on signs was not clear. It looked like Chinese or Korean but was not real. The lines on the road were wrong. The camera did not shake during the earthquake. Also, some things did not move. A store and parked cars were still. But buildings and poles moved. This is not how a real earthquake works. AFP said other false information about the April 2026 earthquake was not true.

Conclusion

So, the videos that people shared after the April 20 earthquake were not from that earthquake. Some videos were from the March 2025 earthquake in Myanmar and the January 2024 earthquake in Noto. Another video was made by a computer. It was posted months before. The real April 20 earthquake made tsunami waves and shook buildings in Tokyo. But there was no big damage.

Vocabulary Learning

earthquake
A sudden shaking of the ground.地震
Example:A strong earthquake hit Japan.
false
Not true; wrong or fake.虛假的
Example:Some videos were false.
real
True, not made up or fake.真實的
Example:The videos were not real.
shared
Gave something to other people, like a post or video.分享
Example:They shared the videos online.
video
A recording of moving pictures and sound.影片
Example:People shared videos on social media.

Sentence Learning

On April 20, 2026, a strong earthquake hit northern Japan.
This sentence uses the past simple tense ('hit') to describe a past event. The preposition 'on' is used for specific dates.本句使用一般过去时（'hit'）描述过去的事件。介詞 'on' 用於具體日期。
The earthquake made tsunami waves.
This sentence uses the past simple tense ('made') to show what the earthquake caused.本句使用一般过去时（'made'）表示地震造成的結果。
But people checked the videos.
This sentence uses the past simple tense ('checked') to describe an action people did.本句使用一般过去时（'checked'）描述人們所做的動作。
They found the videos were not real.
This sentence uses the past simple tense ('found') and a clause ('the videos were not real') to report a discovery.本句使用一般过去时（'found'）以及一個從句（'the videos were not real'）來報告一個發現。
Some videos were from older earthquakes.
This sentence uses the past simple tense ('were') to describe the origin of the videos.本句使用一般过去时（'were'）描述視頻的來源。