Japan's Cabinet Office Taps Mrs. GREEN APPLE for Misinformation Campaign
Japan's Cabinet Office has recruited rock band Mrs. GREEN APPLE for a government public relations campaign on false and misleading online information.
1 source 6h ago
Reporting from 1 source: KAI-YOU.
Why it matters
The government picked a band that has itself dealt with impersonation accounts, and the campaign's core ask is not to identify fakes but to pause before sharing them.
A television commercial titled "Mrs. and Training" begins airing nationwide on November 12, showing a fake news flash that the band has decided to change its name. The campaign slogan "ma-sa-ka" stands for wait, search, and confirm.
The commercial opens on a large street screen resembling the one outside Shibuya Station's Hachiko exit, carrying a fictional news flash that Mrs. GREEN APPLE has decided to rename itself. Members Motoki Omori, Hiroto Wakai, and Ryoka Fujisawa appear in the crowd, and Omori opens with the line "this is a training exercise."
A 30-second web version goes further: at Omori's call, the street, the crowd, and the screen disappear, revealing that the footage itself was a generated video that never existed. The Cabinet Office's public relations office says advances in AI have made images and video easier to produce convincingly, and it warns about both deliberately fabricated disinformation and false information spread without ill intent.
Written with AI by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited. See our editorial policy.
Add Yomimono as a preferred source on Google