2021 video of pro-Trump rally in Japan peddled as footage of recent event

By: Ishita Goel
September 12 2023

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Social media posts claim Trump supporters marched in Japan ahead of U.S. presidential elections in 2024. (Source: X/Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)

What is the claim?

A video of people participating in a rally is going viral on social media with the claim that supporters of former U.S. President Donald Trump marched in Japan in a show of support before the 2024 U.S. presidential elections.

One user sharing the video on X (formerly Twitter) wrote (archived link), "The WORLD IS WAKING US, Japanese for Trump🇯🇵#Trump2024." Another X user captioned the video (archived link), "Japan waking up & realising how critical to them & the entire world the U.S. 2024 election is." The video was also shared on YouTube with the inlaid text: "Massive protest's in Japan supporting Trump's leadership in 2024." A TikTok user wrote (archive link), "#Trump2024 Thanks Japan" and shared the video with the text: "Japanese for Trump, the World Needs Trump."

Viral posts on X. (Source: X/Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)

Where is the video from?
We ran keyframes of the video through a reverse-image search and came across several news reports from January 2021. Reuters had published a clip on January 7, 2021, showing some similar visuals as the viral video. The video was titled "Pro-Trump supporters march in Tokyo." According to the description, over 1,000 people gathered on the streets of Tokyo to support Trump and protest against the results of the 2020 U.S. election, which saw Trump lose to Joe Biden.

Video on Reuters website. (Source: Reuters/Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)

U.K. daily Metro had also shared images and a video from the Tokyo rally on January 7, 2021, in a report headlined, "Hundreds march in support of Donald Trump in Japan after riots." The rally had come within hours of a mob attacking the United States Capitol Building in Washington D.C., the report noted.

The banner reading 'East Asia Love Trump' and a placard with the slogan, 'God Bless America, Japan stands with Trump,' seen in the viral video are also visible in the videos shared by Metro and Reuters.

Comparison of the viral video and the video posted on Reuters. (Source: X/Reuters/Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)

People seen wearing the Trump face masks around the 0:01 mark in the viral video are visible around the 0:02 timestamp in the Metro video. 

Comparison of the viral video and the video posted on Metro(Source: X/Metro/Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)

Further, in the viral video, around the 0:16 second timestamp, we can see a placard bearing the text 'Trump 2020'.

'Trump 2020' placards were seen in the viral video. (Source: X/Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)

Why were people rallying?

Reuters reported that protestors in Tokoyo were rallying, waving "American and Japanese flags and holding banners claiming Trump was "the true winner" of the 2020 election." Metro reported the crowd "chanted anti-Chinese Communist Party and anti-media slogans in both Japanese and English." It added that Japan has been seeing pro-Trump rallies since November 2020, after the U.S. elections concluded with a win for Biden, whose inauguration took place in January 2021. 

Trump and the 2024 elections

Trump has launched his campaign for the 2024 election and remains the Republican frontrunner in the race despite the growing list of cases against him. This has made a repeat of the 2020 Biden-Trump showdown a likely scenario. However, some media reports said that according to legal experts, "Trump could be disqualified under section 3 of the 14th amendment. The measure bars someone from holding federal office if they have "previously taken an oath … to support the constitution" and subsequently "engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same."

The verdict

The video shows a pro-Trump rally held in Japan in January 2021 to protest the 2020 U.S. election results. The video is unrelated to the upcoming 2024 polls. Therefore, we have marked this claim as misleading.