Fact Check: Not Japanese police! This video of cops tackling armed woman is from China

A video making the rounds on social media shows a face-off between a woman armed with butcher knives in both hands and cops on a busy street. The clip shows the policemen using shields, catchpoles, and plastic boxes to restrain and pin the woman to the ground. Many who shared the clip claimed that this incident unfolded in Japan.

One person shared the video on Facebook writing, “The Japanese police are afraid to approach a woman. It's said that there, anyone could be a descendant of a samurai.” An archived version of this post can be found here.

India Today found that this incident took place in China’s Guangdong province, not in Japan.

Our Probe

A reverse search of keyframes from the viral video led us to a report about the video. According to it, this incident is from August 14, 2023, when a woman was found walking on a street in broad daylight while holding a pair of knives in China. People in the area called the police for help, who persuaded the woman to put down the knives. When she did not, they tackled her and pinned her to the ground. No casualties were reported in the incident.

Subsequently, we found several other reports about this incident. According to them, this took place in Foshan, a city in central Guangdong province, China. Several China-based media outlets and people shared this video at the time. One of the reports mentioned that the woman had bought two new knives from a store and was carrying them straight to her home without any packaging.

In another report, we found photos of the incident in better resolution. With the help of Google Lens, we copied the text written in Mandarin in front of a shop on the street. A Google search revealed that it was an outlet of DaShenLin Pharmaceutical, a China-based company principally engaged in the pharmaceutical retailing business. It is headquartered in Guangzhou City, Guangdong province of China.

Moreover, one of the reports about this incident stated that it took place in front of a branch of DaShenLin Pharmaceuticals in Shunde District, Guangdong province. Thus, it is clear that this incident is from China and has no links to Japan.