"Seeing the Earthquake Cloud Pattern, a Major Earthquake Seems Imminent"... Rumors Spreading on SNS in Japan

Sharp Increase in Searches for 'Jijinun' in Japan

Since the Japanese government announced the 'Nankai Trough Earthquake Temporary Information (Major Earthquake Advisory),' false information without scientific basis has been spreading online.

According to the Yomiuri Shimbun on the 12th, photos of so-called 'jishinun' are being posted one after another on social networking services (SNS). Jishinun refers to clouds with unusual shapes that are said to appear before an earthquake occurs. Netizens are posting photos that appear to show jishinun, predicting that an earthquake will occur at a specific time.

On the morning of the 12th, photos of clouds from Japan have been continuously uploaded on social networking services (SNS). [Image source=X (X)]

The media reported that, based on an analysis using Google Trends, searches for 'jishinun' surged starting from the 8th, the day a Miyazaki Prefecture earthquake occurred. It added that from the 8th to the 10th, the search rate for jishinun was highest in Mie Prefecture, followed by Oita Prefecture and Miyazaki Prefecture.

All these local governments are expected damage areas for the 'Nankai Trough Mega Earthquake,' a large earthquake that occurs at intervals of 100 to 150 years along the Nankai Trough, which extends from the sea off Shizuoka Prefecture west of the Tokyo metropolitan area to the southern part of Shikoku and the eastern sea area of Kyushu. Additionally, on X (formerly Twitter), posts such as "A major earthquake will come on August 10" and "August 11 is the scheduled date for the Nankai Trough earthquake" have been spreading. Some of these posts have exceeded 2 million views.

However, the newspaper emphasized that accurately predicting earthquakes is virtually impossible. The Japan Meteorological Agency also stated on its website that "Information claiming to know the exact time and place of an earthquake in advance is a rumor" and "There is no need to worry."

Earlier, after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake occurred in Miyazaki Prefecture on the 8th, the Meteorological Agency has been releasing detailed information every afternoon about crustal movement conditions at the expected epicenter of the Nankai Trough Mega Earthquake. However, if there are no changes in seismic activity or crustal movement, the temporary information on the Nankai Trough earthquake is planned to be lifted at 5 p.m. on the 15th.