The claim: Graves in Japan use QR codes to provide information on the deceased
A QR code, or Quick Response code, allows users to scan it with a smartphone camera and be directed to any online destination. These square grids of pixels are commonly used to view a menu, add friends on social media, board a flight or authenticate login details.
But they’ve also been adopted to give a technological update to one of the longest-used items in human history: tombstones.
Social media users are sharing an image of a woman scanning a QR code on what seems to be a headstone as an example of the approach.
“Technology after death in Japan,” reads an Aug. 26 Facebook post that features the image. “The graves of the Japanese are equipped with a special QR code for each grave, which shows you pictures, information and a brief biography of the life of the dead!!”
The post has accumulated more than 4,800 interactions. Similar versions of the claim gathered hundreds more.
While Japan has offered QR codes on tombstones, the image that is being shared doesn’t show that. It shows a commemorative site in China.
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USA TODAY reached out to the Facebook user who posted the claim for comment.
Gravestone is part of a memorial in China
The QR code, invented by Masahiro Hara, first appeared in the Japanese market in 1994 and was used to track vehicles and parts as they moved along the manufacturing process, according to Business Insider. They began appearing on Japanese tombstones in 2008, according to Pacific Standard, a magazine no longer operating.
In 2008, Reuters published an article about a Japanese family gravesite equipped with a code to offer connectivity among visitors. The code is linked to the Oba family’s pictures and history, and visitors are able to pay their respects that way.
This innovative method is a growing trend elsewhere as well. In June, a CBS station in Iowa reported that Des Moines is implementing QR codes in a cemetery to tell the stories of its earliest residents. Kristine Bartley, the creator of the “mobile history tour,” created short videos using stories collected over the years.
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But the picture isn’t related to gravestones in Japan.
On April 1, 2015, the English-language website of China News Service published three photos showing a memorial at the theme park Foreigner Street in Chongqing, China. It commemorates the victims of the Nanjing Massacre and the Bombing of Chongqing, both committed by Japanese troops in China during World War II.
Scanning the code allows visitors to participate in an online memorial, where they are able to light candles, present flowers, ring bells and plant trees.
Our rating: Missing context
Based on our research, we rate as MISSING CONTEXT the claim graves in Japan use QR codes to provide information on the deceased. While these codes appear on Japanese tombstones, the Facebook post does not include an image of one. The image in question shows a memorial at a theme park in China.
Our fact-check sources:
- Business Insider, May 3, What is a QR code? A guide to the barcode’s basics, why you’re seeing it everywhere, and how to scan one
- ECNS.cn, April 1, 2015, Online memorial dedicated to WWII victims
- China.org.cn, April 1, 2015, Scanning QR code to commemorate massacre victims
- Travel China Guide, accessed Nov. 17, Memorial Hall to the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre
- Oxford Research Encyclopedias, Aug. 27, 2020, Nanjing Massacre
- ChinaDaily.com.cn, Jan. 21, 2014, Museum reminds people of Bombing of Chongqing
- Reuters, April 3, 2008, Japan e-crypt offers a tomb with a view
- KCCI, June 22, Iowa cemetery’s QR codes bring the people’s stories to life
- Reuters, Nov. 16, Fact Check-Photo does not show cemetery with QR code headstone
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