Images Of The Ukrainian Ambassador To Japan Dressed As Samurai Making A 'Last Stand' Are Real, But Also Inaccurate

Photos of the Ukrainian Ambassador to Japan, meaning a Ukraine-born person who goes to Japan on behalf of Ukraine's special interests, had pictures taken of him "dripped": out in samurai armor complete with a sword and crested helm. The problem, however, came months later when Russia invaded Ukraine, as there were viral posts that started to get shared in relation to the pictures.

Many people online shared the pictures, claiming that they were of the Japanese Ambassador to Ukraine dressed in the samurai armor, which would mean a Japanese-born politician who goes to Japan on behalf of their interests. The captions of the posts were all the same, talking about the "Japanese Ambassador deciding to stay and fight for democracy" while stating that it is "the way of the Samurai code to not run from defending a home."

The photo of a man clothed in samurai armor amidst the Russian invasion of Ukraine is, in fact, not the Japanese ambassador to Ukraine, Kuninori Matsuda, as claimed by some social media users and fact-checked by outlets like Reuters recently. The man pictured is actually the Ukrainian ambassador to Japan, Sergiy Korsunsky.

🇺🇦🇯🇵Ambassador of Japan to Ukraine.
He stayed in Kiev and so expressed his solidarity with them! pic.twitter.com/3ZdeOznD8j

— Dikhamidze Kakhaber🇪🇺 (@Dikhamidze2780K) February 23, 2022

Ukraine's ambassador in Japan, @KorsunskySergiy posted some photos as a samurai, so I had a silly idea. I know it's dumb, but if someone in #Ukraine sees it and brings them a bit of joy then I won't have wasted my time with this. I can only hope.
Atomic Samurai#digitalart pic.twitter.com/bnDTRKwxAA

— Argent Ian (@IanRegueiro) February 28, 2022

“Glory to Japan. Glory to Ukraine” Japanese ambassador to Ukraine decides to stay in Kiev in defense of democracy…. He arranged for his grandfather’s SAMURAI sword to be delivered. “A Samurai Does Not Run!” BRAVO! pic.twitter.com/szobJSxtRc

— Augusta Phifer (@AugustaPhifer) February 25, 2022

The Japanese ambassador to Ukraine stayed in Kiev.

His great-grandfather's samurai sword and traditional armor was delivered to him from Tokyo, Japan.

In a FB post, he declared that the samurai must protect the country in which he is!

“Glory to Japan! Glory to Ukraine!"

🇯🇵🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/kixeXfumqx

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) February 24, 2022

The problem, however, is that the picture was not of the Japanese ambassador, but the Ukrainian one, who was safely in Japan at the time the invasion started and is still over there now. The correction to the viral post started to make the rounds of social media and proved to be another cautionary tale in the dangers of misinformation during times of war.

Even well-meaning misinformation is still misinformation.

This is the Ukrainian ambassador to Japan. NOT the Japanese ambassador to Ukraine.

This is not his great-grandfather's sword/armor.

We are less likely to be wary of appealing misinfo like this. Be wary. pic.twitter.com/yROxhTVrqx

— Kolina Koltai, PhD (job hunting) (@KolinaKoltai) February 24, 2022

Is this a photo of Japan's ambassador staying to fight in Ukraine?

No, this is Ukraine's ambassador to Japan posing prior to Russia's invasion of his country https://t.co/imCWVemJM6 pic.twitter.com/ZSL18h9sUJ

— AFP Fact Check 🔎 (@AFPFactCheck) February 25, 2022

We've seen similar incidences with viral stories like the Ghost of Kyiv and the Battle of Snake Island recently, both of which were widely shared all around the web and in numerous memes, just as we saw with this image.