Misinformation surrounding Japan’s growing anti-immigration stance has spread across the region, with the latest instance being an AI-generated video of Muslims supposedly praying onboard a crowded Japanese train that surfaced in South Korean posts. Experts said the supposed worship scene is inconsistent with authentic Islamic prayer practices.
“The recent scene of Muslims on a Japanese subway train,” reads a Korean-language post shared on Bobaedream, a local online forum, on April 1.
The post contains a clip of a group of men, mostly dressed in long tunics and skullcaps, performing what appears to be a Muslim prayer inside a moving subway train. They are closely surrounded by passengers seated on both sides of the carriage.
Two of the men kneel on the floor, bowing their heads deeply on a small mat placed in front of them, their heads nearly touching the knees of the passengers in front of them. Another bends forward at the waist while standing, and a fourth remains upright with his eyes closed.
Screenshot of the false post, taken April 16, 2026, with AI label and red X added by AFP
Anti-immigration sentiment has grown in Japan, with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi coming to power on a promise to tighten rules for foreigners, while the far-right “Japanese first” Sanseito party also made gains in recent elections (archived links here and here).
Misinformation surrounding Muslim-friendly policies have also seen some local Japanese governments become inundated by complaints — such as when a tourism campaign to attract Muslim travellers to Aichi prefecture was misrepresented as an immigration policy (archived link).
Complaints were also made in Japan’s Kitakyushu city after inaccurate claims that it planned Muslim-friendly school lunches (archived link).
The posts about Muslims praying on a Japanese subway train spread in South Korea, where anti-Muslim sentiment has grown in some online spaces particularly among conservative evangelical church groups.
In one case in 2023, local residents staged months-long protests against a construction of a mosque for Muslim students in the city of Daegu, with some opponents calling the students “terrorists” and organising pork barbecues near the site (archived link).
The video was also shared in multiple languages, including Chinese, Japanese, English, and Italian.
Comments indicate some users believe the claim.
“Muslims never just come. They always take over!” said one.
“Go back to your country! This is Japan!!” another wrote.
But the video is AI-generated and experts said the prayers shown in the clip are inconsistent with actual Muslim practices.
Visual inconsistencies
An analysis of the clip found visual errors, such as parts of the subway handles and the overhead compartment vanishing and re-appearing.
Screenshot of the false post, with visual errors highlighted by AFP
A passenger appears to be fused with the seat rails, creating a distorted overlap, while others appear to be seated in parts where no seats normally exist, for example, directly in front of a door.
An image of an advertisement also appears to be blurred and oddly-shaped.
An analysis using the Hive Moderation AI detection tool found the video is “likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content” (archived link).
Screenshot of the Hive Moderation analysis results
‘Totally wrong’
Experts said the video also erroneously depicted the way Muslims pray.
“The way these people in the video perform prayers or the location of the prayer look totally wrong,” Kwon Seung-Il, deputy director of Korea Muslim Federation, told AFP, on April 14.
“It appears that the video was created by someone who doesn’t really know how actual Muslims pray.”
He said unlike the customary movements of prayer, two men in the videos bow their heads three times instead of twice, and do not lower them deep enough for their foreheads to touch the ground during prostration.
Kim Jeoung-Myoung, director of the Institute of Middle Eastern Affairs at Myongji University in Seoul, also said it was “absolutely unheard of” for Muslim worshippers to prostrate towards other people, as depicted in the AI-generated video (archived links here and here).
The gesture signifies submission to Allah alone and is generally forbidden in Islam, he told AFP on April 13.
Kim added it was “extremely rare” for Muslims — who are required to pray towards the direction of Mecca, Saudi Arabia — to perform prayers on moving public transport. The notable exception is on airplanes, he said, where Muslim passengers are often informed about the direction of the Muslim holy land.
AFP has previously debunked misinformation about Japan’s immigration stance.