OSAKA - During the election period, the spread of videos containing false information has emerged as a growing problem, with an Islamic religious facility in Osaka becoming the target of misleading footage that circulated widely online, prompting confusion and concern among those involved.
The mosque, a sacred place of prayer for Muslims located in Osaka’s Nishinari Ward, found itself caught up in the fallout from a “fake video” that spread on social media in December last year.
The video claimed that Arabic-language prayer announcements were being broadcast loudly across the city at around 4 a.m., while another clip included the caption, “Five broadcasts a day—how can this level of noise be allowed?”
In the comment sections, posts describing the situation as “a nuisance” or calling for the facility to be “removed” appeared, and another video labeled “4 a.m. in Osaka Nishinari” also spread widely. After seeing the footage, mosque representative Helizar Adaldei questioned its authenticity.
“This is not here,” Adaldei said. “We checked, and it’s not even in Japan.”
The buildings shown in the videos differ significantly from the mosque in Nishinari. While a large speaker visible in the initial video does exist at the mosque, Adaldei said it is not used in the way claimed online.
“During the day, audio is played inside,” he said. “It is never broadcast outside. We take care to ensure the sound does not leak.”
He added that audio was broadcast externally only once several years ago, in the evening and with permission from the police and other authorities, and has not been used that way since. Indoor speakers currently in use are installed with measures such as thickened walls to prevent sound from escaping.
Reporter Erika Tagami said that although announcements were being played inside the mosque during the visit, they were barely audible outside.
According to Osaka City, officials conducted multiple unannounced inspections after receiving reports from people who had seen the videos, but found no evidence of the situation depicted online.
With foreign policy toward non-Japanese residents emerging as one of the issues in the Lower House election, Adaldei urged the public not to accept misinformation at face value.
“People may be spreading false information because they don’t know us,” he said. “I think it’s important to see things with your own eyes and confirm whether they are true.”
Source: YOMIURI
