Fact Check. 100,000 people demonstrated in Japan against the WHO pandemic treaty? – Observer

There are countless publications that state that 100,000 people took to the streets of Japan (a country not used to mass protests) against the World Health Organization’s global treaty on pandemics. “More than 100,000 Japanese took to the streets determined to protect the their children and defend their nation against the health agenda and the WHO pandemic treaty”, says one of the publications, which also shares a video of a crowd of people, some of whom wave Japanese flags.

The video in question is true. It portrays a protest, which took place in the Ikebukuro district, in Tokyo, against the substance of the international treaty on pandemics — a document that is still being discussed within the WHO, but which will have as its main objective to guarantee a concerted response between countries during the next pandemic.

Regarding the protest, which took place on April 13, no Japanese government or local entity has provided an estimate of the number of participants. The organizers aimed to bring together 100,000 people on the streets of Japan. But, apart from Tokyo, there is no record of protests in other Japanese cities.

And, even in the capital, the number of protesters was well below the target. Although there is no official data, the risk management agency Crisis24 speaks of a few thousand people gathered in the Ikebukuro area. In a post about the protest, Hiroshi Tanaka, a member of the Sanseitō party (or Do It Yourself Party, in a free translation), a nationalist and ultra-conservative force created in 2020, shared his own experience as a member of the organization.

On the Go2Senkyo blog, Tanaka elaborates on how Japanese society, as a rule, does not adhere to mass demonstrations. And then it refers directly to the protest of April 13th. “When it comes to demonstrations, which the Japanese hate, there were more than 7 thousand people [presentes nas ruas de Tóquio], at least on a low estimate. If we count the people who filled the sides of the streets, there must have been well over 10 thousand people” in the protest against what has been called the “pandemic treaty”.

In the same blog, another member of the same party, Masanao Kaji, describes what would have been “tens of thousands of protesters” taking part in that protest, without reference to a concrete number.

Looking at the images, and although the limits of the demonstration are not clear, the number of people, gathered in a square in front of a stage (where other people were speaking), does not seem to come close to the figures mentioned, that is, 100 thousand. And the reports from those who participated in the demonstration — and helped organize it — point, in the most optimistic estimates, to values ​​10 times lower than those mentioned in the publication under analysis.

Conclusion

There is no evidence that 100,000 people attended a demonstration in Tokyo against the international treaty on pandemics. The risk management agency Crisis24 only speaks of a few thousand people and one of the organizers speaks of a maximum of 10 thousand protesters.

Thus, according to the Observer classification system, this content is:

WRONG

In Facebook’s classification system this content is:

FALSE: the main content claims are factually inaccurate. Generally, this option corresponds to “false” or “mostly false” ratings on fact-checker websites.

NOTE: this content was selected by Observador as part of a fact checking partnership with Facebook.