Here's the first half of what I think is an excellent article on misinformation about "foreign criminals" being spread of the web. The article is behind a paywall so you need to register (and be willing to read or translation the Japanese) in order to read the whole thing. -- Kirk
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Why Do False Rumors Spread During the Kumamoto Earthquake Even Though “There Is No Evidence That Crime by Foreigners Is Increasing”? How Can Repeated Disaster-Related Hate Be Prevented?
July 31, 2026, 6:00 a.m.
Article available to paid subscribers only
Researchers specializing in disasters have established the Study Group on Discriminatory Rumors During Disasters in an effort to prevent discriminatory rumors that exploit people’s anxiety following earthquakes and other disasters by baselessly portraying foreign residents as criminals.
Such rumors triggered the massacre of Koreans following the 1923 Great Kantō Earthquake and are now beginning to spread during the current Kumamoto earthquake as well. The group warns that continued failure to challenge these rumors could lead to the exclusion of and violence against foreign residents. It aims to submit recommendations to the national government and society ahead of September, which will mark 103 years since the Great Kantō Earthquake.
By Tomoyuki Morimoto, Masato Nakane, and Kyoko Ando
Unsubstantiated Posts Appeared Immediately After the Earthquake
“If we don’t drive the foreigners out of Kumamoto, the looting and theft will begin.”
“There will probably be foreign looters taking advantage of the disaster.”
Posts making such unsubstantiated claims began appearing one after another on X, formerly Twitter, immediately after the earthquake.
When this newspaper’s investigative reporting section contacted the Kumamoto Prefectural Police, a representative said:
“We have increased patrols, but we have not confirmed any evidence that crime by foreigners is increasing.”
“There is no evidence that foreigners have been especially likely to commit crimes during past disasters.”
So says Naoki Katō, a nonfiction writer who called for the establishment of the Study Group on Discriminatory Rumors During Disasters and now serves as one of its co-representatives.
Despite this, he says, rumors about “crime by foreigners” have appeared during every major disaster in recent decades, beginning with the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake.
“The same thing is happening this time. Rumors cannot be entirely avoided. What is important is preventing them from spreading so that people do not accept them as facts,” he warned.
Such Rumors May Instead Provoke Violence Against Foreign Minorities
Katō has written about the massacre of Koreans following the Great Kantō Earthquake, which was carried out by Japanese people who believed false rumors claiming, among other things, that Koreans had “poisoned wells.”
He became interested in rumors about “crime by foreigners” after Shintarō Ishihara, then governor of Tokyo, made remarks at a Ground Self-Defense Force ceremony in 2000.
“Illegal immigrants from the ‘Third Countries’ and other foreigners are repeatedly committing atrocious crimes, and in the event of a major disaster, we must even anticipate the possibility of riots,” Ishihara said.
The term sangokujin, literally “people of the third countries,” was used derogatorily by Japanese people to refer to Koreans and others immediately after the end of World War II.
Naoki Katō, who is working through the Study Group on Discriminatory Rumors During Disasters to develop recommendations for preventing harm to foreign residents, in Tokyo on July 30.
Shocked by Ishihara’s remarks, Katō examined records of earthquakes around the world over the preceding 30 years. He could find no evidence that riots had occurred or that foreigners had become violent.
Katō was particularly alarmed that such statements had been made by the head of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government because, while reporting in areas affected by the Great Hanshin Earthquake, he had heard rumors claiming that “foreigners are stealing.”
A journalist he knew was surrounded late at night in a shopping district by members of a self-appointed vigilante group carrying metal baseball bats.
“He said, ‘I don’t know what would have happened if I had been a foreigner.’”
The experience left Katō with a strong sense that rumors portraying foreigners as criminals could themselves provoke violence against members of foreign minorities.
What the Study Group on Discriminatory Rumors During Disasters Hopes to Achieve
The study group was formed this spring after Katō approached Professor Ki-hwan Kwak of Tohoku Gakuin University, a sociologist who had investigated rumors about “crime by foreigners” following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. Lawyers, disaster-relief volunteers, and others are also participating.
Following the Great East Japan Earthquake, a Tokyo-based right-wing group reportedly entered the disaster area carrying weapons, claiming that it was doing so to maintain public order. During the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake, members of a volunteer fire brigade were also reportedly seen patrolling while carrying crowbars.
In recent years, hate speech targeting Kurdish people, foreign workers, and others has become increasingly widespread. Some participants have expressed concern that malicious, hate-driven rumors may spread through the interaction between discourse on social media and developments in society offline.
No cases in postwar Japan have been reported in which such rumors actually escalated into violence. In the United States, however, rumors that “Black people were looting” spread through areas affected by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and…
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震災などの不安に乗じて根拠なく外国人を犯罪者とみなす差別流言を防ごうと、災害の研究者らが「災害時の差別流言研究会」を立ち上げた。差別流...
