Around noon on 8 October 2026, a fire started in the Nömrög Strictly Protected Area in Khalkhgol sum, Dornod Province, Mongolia, about 27 km from the China–Mongolia border. The vehicle that caught fire belonged to Mobicom, a Mongolian mobile operator and a consolidated subsidiary 98.8% owned by KDDI1. Mobicom acknowledged that the vehicle fire spread to the grassland and said the group was there to hand over communication works for border posts and the border port and to survey local conditions2. Mongolian media reported that the convoy entered the reserve to catch taimen3; the cause of the fire is still under police investigation4. The fire was fully extinguished on the morning of 16 October5. On 20 October the Mongolian Ministry of Environment and Climate Change put the preliminary burned area at 528,765.5 ha, of which 468,965.7 ha lies inside the reserve, 79.8% of the reserve6.

I analysed this fire with public satellite data, first published on 12 October and updated for more than a week afterwards: Nömrög (Numrug) Grassland Fire in Dornod, Mongolia: Satellite Monitoring and Weather. “My post” below refers to it.

Note

Updates:

  • 10-22: added reports by ANN, FNN, TBS, NHK, Nikkei, the Mainichi and the Asahi, and KDDI’s responses.
  • 10-23: added the Japanese Embassy’s message of sympathy, KDDI’s announcement, and reports by Jiji, Nippon TV and the Yomiuri.
  • 10-25: added Jiji’s and AFP’s reports, the Global Times and Changanjie Zhishi commentaries, and NSMC’s monitoring.
  • 10-26: added Kyodo’s and Xinhua’s reports on compensation, Chief Cabinet Secretary Kihara’s statement and the Mongolian meeting of the 26th.
  • 10-29: added Foreign Minister Motegi’s dispatch of experts, the Mongolian prime minister’s accountability orders, Prime Minister Takaichi’s phone call with the Mongolian prime minister, and Xinhua’s and the Global Times’ reports of the 27th.
  • 11-01: added the reports by Josei Jishin and the Global Times of the 30th; X counts extended through the 31st.
  • 11-03: added CCTV’s report of the 31st; X counts extended through the 22:00 hour of 11-03.
  • 11-06: added Shukan Bunshun, Naigai Times, Guancha and Matsuda’s remarks; X counts extended through the 09:00 hour of 11-06.
  • 11-09: added reports of Matsuda’s remarks and Record China; X counts extended through the 20:00 hour of 11-09.

Timeline

Beijing time (UTC+8) unless noted; posts on X are in JST.

TimeEventSource
10-06Fibre opening ceremony at the Sümber border port; the border authority issues border-zone permits for 10-06 to 10-08 to 13 people and 5 vehiclesMongolian General Authority for Border Protection statement7
10-08 11:41–11:51Himawari-9 and GK-2A, two geostationary satellites, first detect warming in the fire pixelMy post
10-08 11:55Mongolia’s National Emergency Management Agency receives the reportNEMA8
10-08 12:15A fire lookout tower of the Bailang Forestry Bureau, Hinggan League, spots a fire inside Mongolia about 40 km from the borderHinggan Forestry and Grassland9
10-09The National Satellite Meteorological Centre (NSMC) publishes English-language monitoring on its FY Emergency Support page for international users: FY-4C detects a fire pixel at 11:50 on 10-08, with a fire pixel area time series and thematic maps of fire duration and spatial and temporal distributionNSMC10
From 10-09Hinggan League posts 530 people along 131 km of border; around 13:00 fire appears on the border line of East Ujimqin BannerHinggan Forestry and Grassland, Xinhua11
10-11More than 2000 people deployed in Inner Mongolia; Hinggan League starts burning firebreaks along the border from 12:40Xinhua, Hinggan Forestry and Grassland
10-12 00:55Mongolian side announces the fire is containedMNB12
10-12Mobicom issues a statementikon.mn2
10-12My post is publishedThis blog
10-12ParsToday Japanese and People’s Daily Online Japanese post in Japanese on X, the earliest Japanese-language contentX
10-12 19:00China’s National Meteorological Centre and three other agencies issue the Global Hazardous Weather Monitoring and Forecast Bulletin: FY-4C estimate of about 5050 km² burned, with a three-day forecast of wind, humidity and fire dangerNMC13
10-13More than 3400 people deployed on the Chinese side; the fire has not crossed the borderXinhua14
10-14People’s Daily Japanese posts a video on X; two Mongolian users post in Japanese, one of them mentioning the Japanese embassy in Mongolia, naming Mobicom in Japanese for the first timeX
10-14 20:58NTV airs an interview with Mobicom CEO Yasuhiro Ochi, who apologises to the Mongolian peopleNTV МЭДЭЭ15
10-15SCMP reports that the vehicle may have belonged to MobicomSCMP
10-16 07:00Mongolian side announces the fire fully extinguishedNEMA5
10-17 11:30 JSTSong Wenzhou posts in Japanese on X, 110,000 views; Kabashima Mariko relays the SCMP report, 12,000 views. First spread among accounts based in JapanX1617
10-18 to 10-19Posts by ordinary Japanese users on X increase, several asking why mainstream media are not reportingX18
10-19I check NHK, Kyodo, Jiji, Nikkei, Asahi, Yomiuri, Mainichi and Sankei: no reports; nothing in KDDI’s newsroomMy own check
10-20 00:22Xinhua Japanese publishes an article datelined Ulaanbaatar 19 October; livedoor, d menu and au Web Portal republish it shortly afterwardsXinhua Japanese19
10-20 17:12Mongolian Ministry of Environment and Climate Change publishes the preliminary burned areaMontsame6
10-20 18:40 JSTlivedoor posts the Xinhua Japanese article on X, 17,879 repostsX20
10-20 22:07 JSTKyodo publishes the first report by Japanese mainstream media, 12 days 9 hours after the fire started; KDDI responds for the first time in that coverage, confirming that a Japanese executive was in the reserve at the time; Sankei republishes at 22:20Kyodo21
10-21Alterna, NEWS Post Seven and others follow122
10-21 16:12 JSTTV Asahi (ANN) runs a report headlined 「KDDIが謝罪　中国メディア『日本人が乗った車が原因』」; Fuji TV (FNN) follows at 16:41. These are the earliest reports by a Japanese TV network I could findANN23, FNN24
10-21KDDI answers a written inquiry from Alterna and says it received Mobicom’s report on 11 OctoberAlterna25
10-22 00:24 JSTSecond ANN report, with remarks from a Mongolian reporter and Mongolia’s deputy prime minister; ANN’s YouTube title marks it as that night’s Hōdō StationANN26
10-21 13:44 JSTFormer yokozuna Asashoryu posts in Japanese on X, asking why nobody mentions the Mongolian MPs who took the group there; 760k viewsX27, Sanspo28
10-21Mongolia’s prime minister orders an investigation into the damage and the cause, and says those responsible will be identified and made to pay compensationAsahi Shimbun29
10-22 05:00 JSTKyodo’s story dated the 22nd, carried by regional papers such as the Gifu Shimbun; Nikkei runs it at 14:04Gifu Shimbun30, Nikkei31
10-22 08:30 JSTStill no reports found on Google News from NHK, Nikkei, Asahi, Yomiuri, Mainichi, Jiji, TBS or Nippon TVMy own check
10-22 10:48 JSTANN’s third report: three Mobicom executives, including the CEO, were in the reserve that day; a recap follows at 13:27ANN32
10-22 16:14 JSTTBS (JNN) reportsTBS33
10-22 19:25 JSTNHK’s 7 p.m. news covers it, for about one minute from 19:25 according to viewers’ posts. As of 21:45 there is no matching article in the NHK news site’s latest listX34
10-22 19:17 JSTThe Mainichi reports, bylined from its Beijing bureauMainichi35
10-22 21:00 JSTThe Asahi Shimbun reports, bylined from its Beijing bureau; KDDI says it will fundamentally review Mobicom’s safety managementAsahi Shimbun29
10-22The Embassy of Japan in Mongolia posts a message of sympathy on its website, stating that the fire was caused by a Mobicom vehicle fire and that it will actively consider, with Mobicom, cooperation in restoring the affected area. This is the first public statement from the Japanese government side that I could findEmbassy of Japan36
10-22 21:45 JSTStill no reports found on Google News from Yomiuri, Jiji, Nippon TV or TV Tokyo; nothing in the KDDI newsroomMy own check
10-23 02:34 JSTNHK News Web posts the corresponding text storyNHK37
10-23 12:00 JSTFNN’s second report; asked about Mongolian media reports of taimen fishing, KDDI says 「情報が入っておらず確認中です」 (we have no information and are checking)FNN38
10-23 14:15 JSTJiji Press reports, datelined BeijingJiji39
10-23 14:34 JSTNippon TV (NNN) reportsNippon TV40
10-23 15:00 JSTToyo Keizai Online publishes; the headline says damages are 「必至」 (inevitable); the second half of the article is paywalled and was not readToyo Keizai41
10-23 15:38 JSTKazuya Shinba, secretary-general of the Democratic Party for the People, tells a press conference 「一企業の問題ではなく、国としてしっかり向き合わなければならない」 (this is not one company’s problem; the country must face it properly)Sankei42
10-23 16:00 JSTKDDI’s apology in its newsroom, by the publication time given on the page. It relays the account Mobicom published the same day and is KDDI’s first announcement about the fireKDDI43
10-23 19:32 JSTSankei runs its own story, bylined by its Beijing correspondent and an economics reporter; KDDI tells it the group 「通常の手続きで申請し、車も定められたルートを走行していた」 (applied through the normal procedure, and the vehicles followed the designated route) and does not state a policy on compensationSankei44
10-23 20:23 JSTThe Yomiuri reports, bylined from Beijing; it still says three Mobicom executives entered the reserve to run a 4G testYomiuri45
10-23 20:42 JSTKDDI’s PR account posts the link on X; 307k views when checked at 22:17X46
10-23 21:49 JSTNikkei reports; the first story I found in a mainstream Japanese outlet based on KDDI’s announcementNikkei47
10-23 22:40 JSTKyodo reports KDDI’s announcement under the headline 「違反なし」 (no violations); KDDI says the visit was legitimate work at the local authorities’ request and denies any recreational purposeKyodo48
10-23 22:00 JSTStill no report found on Google News from TV TokyoMy own check
10-24 11:04 JSTAFP-Jiji reports, relaying the Mongolian government: the fire burned for 8 days, about 5,300 km², roughly 80% of the reserveAFP-Jiji49
10-24 15:23 JSTJiji, datelined Beijing: Mongolia’s cabinet met on the 24th and said it would consider claiming compensation once those responsible are identified. The only Mongolian cabinet meeting on this I could find is the one on the 21st; I found no Mongolian source for a meeting on the 24thJiji50
10-24 20:37 JSTKyodo, datelined Ulaanbaatar: the Mongolian government is identifying those responsible and considering a compensation claim; the deputy prime minister says firefighting is paid for by taxpayers, 「謝罪だけでは済まない」 (an apology alone does not settle it)Kyodo51
10-26 09:40Guangming Online republishes a Xinhua story datelined Beijing 25 October; the source is given as 「日本媒体25日报道」 (Japanese media reported on the 25th), and the deputy prime minister’s words are rendered 「仅道歉是不够的」 (an apology alone is not enough)Xinhua52
10-26 morningMongolia’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change meets the National Emergency Management Agency, the General Authority for Border Protection, Mobicom and others, and asks for a helicopter to carry the damage assessment team; Mobicom’s legal director says fault cannot be discussed before a court rulingӨрөг53
10-26 12:07 JSTJiji: Chief Cabinet Secretary Kihara Minoru tells a press conference 「被害の大きさを深刻に受け止めている」 (we take the scale of the damage seriously) and says Japan will help restore the affected area. This is the first statement at the level of the Japanese cabinet that I could findJiji54, NHK55
10-26 13:12 JSTAsashoryu posts on X that both the Mongolian and Japanese sides are applying pressure to make the matter die down; at 13:21 he posts again that he plans to visit the Prime Minister’s Office soonX56
10-26Mongolia’s prime minister holds a meeting on the fire response and orders action against the head of the Border Port Administration and the commander of border unit 0198; the Minister of Environment and Climate Change meets the Japanese ambassador and Mobicom CEO Ochi, who apologises to the Mongolian peopleMongolian government57, iKon58
10-27 11:52 JSTKyodo: Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu announces at a press conference that JICA forest-protection experts will be sent, saying 「被害の大きさを深刻に受け止めている」 (we take the scale of the damage seriously)Kyodo59, Mainichi60
10-27 12:29Xinhua, datelined Ulaanbaatar: Mongolia’s prime minister calls the fire a serious ecological incident; the story says 「蒙古国官方调查初步确认」 (Mongolia’s official investigation has preliminarily confirmed) that the fire was caused by the activities of Mobicom’s convoyXinhua61
10-27 23:52Global Times commentary: the Japanese government acted formally only 「近两周后」 (nearly two weeks after) the fire startedGlobal Times62
10-29 15:27 JSTPrime Minister Takaichi Sanae posts on X that she has just spoken by phone with Mongolia’s prime minister, Uchral, relaying KDDI’s account that Border Port Administration vehicles drove at the front and rear; Kyodo publishes at 16:59X63, Kyodo64, Mongolian government65
10-29Shukan Bunshun’s online edition (issue of November 5) runs a piece by Takaguchi Kota whose headline says Japan lost the “cognitive war” to China and whose subhead says anger at Japanese companies is not the main topic locally; most of the text is behind a paywall and I have not read itShukan Bunshun66
10-30 14:45 JSTJosei Jishin’s website quotes users saying Prime Minister Takaichi’s response was 「遅すぎる」 (far too slow), and a journalist based in China saying that people in China with strong anti-Japanese feeling criticise her for not mentioning an apology or thanks to ChinaJosei Jishin67
10-30 22:05Global Times relays the Josei Jishin report under the headline 「3周了，高市早苗终于表态」 (Three weeks on, Takaichi finally speaks)Global Times68
10-31 08:46CCTV’s morning news: Japanese economist Tashiro Hidetoshi says the Japanese government and public have paid too little attention to the fire and that the government should soon propose a long-term plan to restore the grasslandCCTV News69
11-02 06:59 JSTNaigai Times (via livedoor) criticises KDDI for issuing its notice two weeks late and asks whether confirming network quality needs a company president alongNaigai Times70
11-05 07:58Guancha runs a commentary by Wen Shaoqing faulting Mongolia for not raising an apology or compensation in the leaders’ call, and arguing that Japanese participation in the damage assessment is a conflict of interestGuancha71
11-06 16:02 JSTKDDI earnings briefing: per reporter Yasuhiro Koyama’s posts on X, president Hiromichi Matsuda opens by apologising for the fire, says in the Q&A KDDI will meet its 「社会的、道義的な責任」 (social and moral responsibility), and says the Mongolian embassy in Tokyo was visited last week to apologise; the written earnings materials do not mention the fireYasuhiro Koyama72, K-tai Watch73
11-06 17:00 JSTRecord China translates Guancha’s commentary of 11-05 into Japanese under the headline 「日系企業が起こした草原火災、なぜかモンゴルと日本の「友好」の象徴に―中国メディア」 (a grassland fire caused by a Japanese company somehow becomes a symbol of Mongolia–Japan “friendship”); Niconico News carries itRecord China74
11-06 21:45 JSTNiconico News posts the translation on X; Hamusoku follows at 18:22 and Hoshu Sokuho at 23:48 on 11-07, and Japanese-language posts on X climb from one or two hundred a day back to about two thousandX counts75

The delay in Japanese mainstream media

This post makes one point: from the fire on 8 October to Kyodo’s first brief late on 20 October, Japanese mainstream media were silent for 12 days and 9 hours76.

Expecting coverage on the day of the fire would be unreasonable, but there should have been coverage three or four days after it started at the latest. Material was available throughout these 12 days. The Chinese side began deploying on the 9th and Xinhua had a story on the 11th. The Mongolian side announced containment on the 12th, and Mobicom issued a statement the same day acknowledging that its vehicle fire spread to the grassland. On the 14th Mobicom’s Japanese CEO apologised on Mongolian television. On the 15th SCMP named Mobicom and KDDI. Xinhua even published a Japanese-language article, datelined the 19th and posted at 00:22 UTC+8 on the 20th, and KDDI’s own au Web Portal republished it shortly afterwards. As of the 19th, NHK, Kyodo, Jiji, Nikkei, Asahi, Yomiuri, Mainichi and Sankei had published nothing. In Kyodo’s brief on the 20th, the account of how the fire started also cites Xinhua.I also found no reports from Western wire services and major papers such as Reuters, AP, AFP or the BBC when searching Google and Bing as of the 21st. This post discusses only Japanese media because the vehicle belonged to a subsidiary of a listed Japanese company, the CEO who apologised is Japanese, and demand from readers in Japan was visible on X from the 17th.

I know Japan has the kisha club system. Dependence on primary sources explains part of this: KDDI’s newsroom had published nothing by the 20th, the police had not released findings, and reporters had no official Japanese statement to quote. That explains the absence of investigative reporting, but it does not explain the absence of even a relayed report. The Japanese CEO of a subsidiary 98.8% owned by a listed Japanese company apologising publicly on foreign television is news in itself, and it does not require waiting for a KDDI announcement.

From the 21st the coverage moved into follow-ups. That afternoon TV Asahi and Fuji TV ran reports, both headlined on 「KDDIが謝罪」 (KDDI apologises); the account of how the fire started was still taken from Xinhua, and ANN’s headline says outright 「中国メディア『日本人が乗った車が原因』」 (Chinese media: a car carrying Japanese caused it). KDDI’s apology was not issued as an announcement. It was a written response to media inquiries, and the version Alterna printed includes the line 「なお、モビコムからは10 月 11 日に報告を受けています。」 (We received a report from Mobicom on 11 October). KDDI therefore knew by the third day after the fire started, and nine days passed before its first public response on the 20th. ANN’s second report, just after midnight on the 22nd, is the first piece of Japanese mainstream coverage to include interviews from the Mongolian side: a Mongolian reporter at the reserve, Suren Delger, says 「国民の怒りは頂点に達しています。」 (public anger has reached its peak), and Deputy Prime Minister Nomtoibayar says 「謝っただけでは許されない」 (an apology alone is not enough)26. As of 08:30 JST on the 22nd, Google News still shows no reports from NHK, Nikkei, Asahi, Yomiuri, Mainichi, Jiji, TBS or Nippon TV.

From the daytime of the 22nd these outlets followed one after another. What Nikkei ran at 14:04 was Kyodo’s story dated the 22nd; TBS reported at 16:14, the Mainichi at 19:17 and the Asahi Shimbun at 21:00, the last two bylined from their Beijing bureaus. NHK covered it on its 7 p.m. news, for about one minute from 19:25 according to viewers’ posts, but as of 21:45 I could not find a matching article in the NHK news site’s latest list. NHK’s first report came on the 14th day after the fire started. The Asahi Shimbun story adds two things: Mongolia’s prime minister on the 21st ordered an investigation into the damage and the cause and said those responsible would be identified and made to pay compensation; and KDDI’s statement 「発生原因は現地の警察当局が調査中。モビコムの安全管理体制を抜本的に見直し、再発防止を全力で進める」 (the cause is under investigation by local police; we will fundamentally review Mobicom’s safety management and do our utmost to prevent a recurrence)29. As of 21:45, Google News still shows nothing from Yomiuri, Jiji, Nippon TV or TV Tokyo, and the KDDI newsroom has no announcement.

Also on the 22nd, the Embassy of Japan in Mongolia posted an 「お見舞いメッセージ」 (message of sympathy) on its website. It is the first public statement from the Japanese government side that I could find, 14 days after the fire started. The body has three sentences: sympathy to the people of Mongolia, with the cause given as 「モビコム社の車両火災を起因として」 (caused by a Mobicom vehicle fire); 「今回の草原火災に関する調査等が、客観的事実と法律に基づき適正に行われることを期待しております」 (we expect the investigation and related work on this grassland fire to be conducted properly, based on objective facts and the law); and a statement that it will actively consider, with Mobicom, cooperation in restoring the affected area. KDDI is not mentioned. The page gives a date but no time of publication36.

On the 23rd, Jiji, Nippon TV and the Yomiuri reported, and the text version of NHK’s story from the evening of the 22nd went up at 2:34 a.m.373940. The Yomiuri was the last of the national papers, at 20:23, 15 days after the fire started. As of 22:00 on the 23rd, of the outlets listed above only TV Tokyo still had nothing I could find on Google News.

The same day KDDI posted an 「お詫び」 (apology) in its newsroom. The page gives 16:00 as its publication time; the KDDI PR account on X posted the link at 20:4246, and neither Nippon TV’s story at 19:50 nor the Yomiuri’s at 20:23 reflects its contents; Nikkei’s story at 21:49 is based on it4547. It is the first item about the fire in KDDI’s newsroom, 15 days after the fire started and 12 days after 11 October, the date on which KDDI says it received Mobicom’s report. The announcement says Mobicom published the facts it has confirmed so far that day and that KDDI is reporting on that basis; the reason it gives for publishing is 「多くの皆さまが疑問や懸念を抱かれ、さまざまな憶測も含む事実と異なる発信がなされるなか」 (as many people have raised questions and concerns, and statements that differ from the facts, including various speculation, have been made)43. Several points in it had not appeared in earlier Japanese coverage:

  • The purpose of the visit is given as two things: attending the opening ceremony of the network Mobicom had built, and checking the quality of the 4G network on site; the visit was made 「国境港湾局の要請に基づき」 (at the request of the border port authority). On the 21st KDDI told Alterna the purpose was 「4Gネットワークの通信試験を実施するため」 (to conduct 4G network communication tests), and in Sankei’s story at 19:32 on the 23rd KDDI’s account is still a 4G communication test44.
  • Mobicom had 2 vehicles carrying 7 staff, including 2 drivers; 3 vehicles of the authorities drove at the front and rear of the convoy. The only Japanese person present was CEO Ochi. ANN reported on the 22nd that three executives including the CEO were in the reserve, and Nippon TV’s story at 19:50 on the 23rd still says 「日本人幹部を含む3 人」 (three people including a Japanese executive)40, and the Yomiuri at 20:23 also says 「幹部３人」 (three executives)45.
  • The vehicles stopped every 20 to 30 minutes to remove dry grass from their undersides. On the 8th, smoke from the underside of a vehicle was noticed during one of these stops; firefighting did not stop the spread. The specific cause of the smoke is under investigation by the authorities.
  • 「当社は、モビコムの社員がその他法令違反行為を行っていないことを確認しています」 (we have confirmed that Mobicom’s employees committed no other violations of law). The announcement does not address fishing directly. When FNN asked KDDI about the fishing reports at noon that day, the answer was still 「情報が入っておらず確認中です」38.

The announcement does not square with earlier statements from Mongolian agencies in several places: the border authority’s permit list includes local residents, who do not appear in the announcement; Mobicom’s 10-12 statement said no officials travelled with the group, while the announcement says the authorities managed the whole trip; Mongolia’s prime minister and environment minister both speak of claiming compensation, which the announcement does not mention; and the deputy prime minister publicly questioned on 10-14 whether Mobicom had any business need to enter the reserve. A point-by-point comparison is in the “Comparing the accounts” section of my analysis.

On the evening of the 24th, Kyodo sent a story datelined Ulaanbaatar: the Mongolian government is identifying those responsible and considering a compensation claim, and Deputy Prime Minister Nomtoibayar said the cost of firefighting falls on taxpayers and that 「謝罪だけでは済まない」 (an apology alone does not settle it)51. The deputy prime minister had said something similar on 10-14, and ANN on the 22nd and FNN on the 23rd also quoted it2638. Xinhua’s Beijing story of the 25th relayed this back into Chinese, giving the source as 「日本媒体25日报道」 (Japanese media reported on the 25th) and rendering the deputy prime minister’s words as 「仅道歉是不够的」 (an apology alone is not enough)52. The Mongolian statement reached Chinese readers by way of Kyodo and then Xinhua.

At midday on the 26th, Chief Cabinet Secretary Kihara Minoru told a press conference 「被害の大きさを深刻に受け止めている。モンゴル国民の皆さまに心からお見舞いを申し上げる」 (we take the scale of the damage seriously, and offer our heartfelt sympathy to the people of Mongolia), and said the cause is for the Mongolian authorities to investigate, and that the Japanese government will stay in close contact with the Mongolian government and help restore the affected area5455. This is the first public statement on the fire at the level of the Japanese cabinet that I could find, 18 days after the fire started and 4 days after the embassy’s message of sympathy. According to Jiji and NHK, he did not mention compensation. Mongolian state broadcasting relayed the statement at 15:57 that day77. The same day Asashoryu posted twice in Japanese on X: at 13:12, that both Mongolia and Japan were applying pressure to play the matter down and let it die away, and that he was checking all the details; at 13:21, that he planned to visit the Prime Minister’s Office soon56.

The same day, Mongolia’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change met the Japanese ambassador and Mobicom’s CEO, Ochi. According to iKon, the ambassador said the Japanese government was ready to help in every way with restoration and ecosystem protection and wished to send Japanese experts in nature conservation and restoration to work in the reserve; Ochi apologised to the Mongolian people58. On the morning of the 27th, Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu announced at a press conference that JICA forest-protection experts would be sent, using the same words, 「被害の大きさを深刻に受け止めている」59. The Mainichi said two people would go, and wrote 「外務省関係者によると27日時点でモンゴルから日本政府に対する直接の支援要請はない」 (according to a Foreign Ministry source, as of the 27th Mongolia had made no direct request for assistance to the Japanese government)60. On the 28th, the Mongolian state secretary in charge of the damage assessment said the Japanese government had offered to send people to take part in calculating the damage78.

On the 27th Asashoryu posted on X photos that appear to show animal carcasses, and Nikkan Sports wrote on that basis that he 「現地入りした模様だ」 (appears to have gone to the site)79; on the 28th he posted about the Nömrög reserve, mentioning the Battle of Khalkhin Gol (Nomonhan) and that he had once asked Kono Taro to recover the remains of Japanese soldiers80. As of the 28th I had found no report of him visiting the Prime Minister’s Office.

At 15:27 on the 29th, Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae posted on X that she had just held a phone call with Mongolia’s prime minister, Uchral (Н.Учрал), and that the Japanese government 「被害の大きさを深刻に受け止めており」 (takes the scale of the damage seriously). The post says the cause is being investigated by the Mongolian authorities, then quotes a full passage of KDDI’s announcement, including the line 「モンゴル国境港湾局の車両が同社の車両の前後を走行する体制で行動していた」 (the group travelled with vehicles of the Mongolian Border Port Administration driving at the front and rear of the company’s vehicles), and says JICA experts were sent on the 27th and that Japan will support restoration with a package including equipment assistance and training of personnel63. When I checked at 22:48, the post had 1.52 million views and 3139 reposts. Kyodo published at 16:5964. The Mongolian government press office’s release the same day says the Japanese side stated that JICA had sent a team of experts and that Japan would take part in restoring the reserve based on the team’s conclusions; it does not mention KDDI65. The call came 21 days after the fire started.

At 14:45 on the 30th, the website of the women’s weekly Josei Jishin published an article headed 「「対応が遅すぎる」高市首相　モンゴル火災発生から“3週間後に公式声明”に疑問の声…モンゴルと中国で未だに続く「強い反発」」67. It quotes users writing 「今頃にモンゴル政府と話すとか遅くないですか」 (isn’t it late to be talking to the Mongolian government only now?) and 「日本とモンゴルの関係性は重要なのに、対応が遅すぎる」 (relations with Mongolia matter, yet the response is far too slow), and a 「中国在住ジャーナリスト」 (journalist based in China) saying that people in China with strong anti-Japanese feeling criticise the prime minister because she 「中国側への謝罪や感謝について何ら言及しない」 (says nothing about an apology or thanks to China). It gives the burned area as about 530,000 ha, not the official figure of 10-28.

Consequences of the delay

I focus on mainstream media rather than individuals because the reach differs. Mainstream media have television, national newspapers, wire services feeding regional papers, and distribution through portals such as Yahoo! News. Once Kyodo’s brief went out on the 20th, Sankei republished it 13 minutes later, and regional papers such as the Shimotsuke Shimbun and the Oita Godo Shimbun carried it the next day. The reach of one wire brief and that of posts on X differ by orders of magnitude.

What the Japanese public actually saw during these 12 days shows up when posts on X are counted by day. The table below counts posts about this fire filtered with lang:ja, by JST day, reposts included81.

Date (JST)PostsOf which reposts
10-06 to 10-1140
10-12149
10-1333
10-141812
10-1542
10-1621
10-17424403
10-182,4392,333
10-197,4237,152
10-2042,57141,389
10-2179,14476,817
10-2276,94073,642
10-2389,27884,690
10-2468,93365,294
10-2566,21663,916
10-2629,76928,504
10-2712,08611,398
10-288,7708,446
10-2911,49110,950
10-306,6216,282
10-311,4111,286
11-01335259
11-02524369
11-03463411
11-04228195
11-0511390
11-06182100
11-071,9261,799
11-082,1932,105
11-09 (to 20:00)198156

Hourly Japanese-language posts on X about this fire, 2026-10-06 to the 20:00 hour of 11-09 (JST), linear scale above and log scale below; the numbers mark key events in the timeline

Hourly Japanese-language posts on X about this fire, 2026-10-06 to the 20:00 hour of 11-09 (JST), linear scale above and log scale below; the numbers mark key events in the timeline

Hourly Japanese-language posts on X about this fire, 2026-10-06 to the 20:00 hour of 11-09 (JST), reposts included. Linear scale above, log scale below. 1 fire starts; 2 NMC bulletin, my post published; 3 Mobicom CEO apologises; 4 posts by Song Wenzhou and Kabashima Mariko; 5 Xinhua Japanese article; 6 livedoor posts on X; 7 Kyodo brief; 8 NHK 7 p.m. news; 9 KDDI’s announcement; 10 Chief Cabinet Secretary Kihara’s statement; 11 Prime Minister Takaichi’s post; 12 Niconico News relays a Guancha column on Mongolia–Japan friendship. Counts: Grok; query in the footnote

  • 10-06 to 10-11: 4 posts, all unrelated false matches. In the first four days after the fire started, the 8th to the 11th, there were zero relevant Japanese-language posts.
  • 10-12 to 10-16: 41 posts in total. Of the 13 that are not reposts, about 5 are from accounts based in Japan, all individuals relaying Chinese news, with few views; 3 are from Japanese-language accounts of foreign media. The first to name Mobicom in Japanese were two Mongolian users on the 14th. Within these 13, the posts from the 15th and 16th were not checked one by one: the counts for those two days come from the counts endpoint, and only the first page of search results was read for original posts.
  • 10-17: 424 posts. One Japanese post by Song Wenzhou reached 110,000 views, the first spread among accounts based in Japan.
  • 10-18: 2439 posts, five to six hundred per hour in the evening, mostly reposts of one personal post about Mobicom executives fishing82. Ordinary users began asking the same question: why are Japanese media not reporting this.
  • 10-19: 7423 posts, holding at 500 to 660 per hour from the evening.
  • 10-20: 42571 posts. Rising from 15:00: 3223 at 18:00, 6136 at 19:00, a peak of 7045 at 20:00, then 6308 at 21:00, 6118 at 22:00 and 5358 at 23:00. The most reposted was livedoor’s post at 18:40, carrying Xinhua’s Japanese wire story from the 19th, which accounts for 27.5% of all reposts on the 19th and 20th. Kyodo’s brief went out at 22:07, 3 hours 27 minutes after the livedoor post; by then the hourly post count on X had been falling from its peak for two hours. After it went out, one user wrote 「やっと日本の通信社で日本発の記事」 (“finally, an article from a Japanese wire service, originating in Japan”); another quoted the livedoor post, complained that it took 12 days after the fire for Japanese media to report it, and noted that it was a republished Xinhua story83.
  • 10-21: 79,144 posts, more than the 52,902 from the 6th to the 20th combined. 3709 at 00:00, falling each hour to 1091 at 04:00, the day’s low; rising from 05:00, with 4337 and 4886 at 07:00 and 08:00. From 09:00, apart from the day’s high of 5164 at 12:00, each hour had 3142 to 4231 posts. Former yokozuna Asashoryu’s Japanese post at 13:44 drew 760k views and 1328 reposts27. Which posts were reposted in each hour was not counted.
  • 10-22: 76,940 posts. The day’s low was 713 at 03:00; the count rose through the day, with 3379 at 12:00, 3963 at 17:00, 4728 at 19:00 and 6035 at 20:00, coinciding with NHK’s 7 p.m. news; then 7246 at 21:00, 8652 at 22:00 and 7569 at 23:00. The 22:00 hour is the busiest since the 6th. Between 00:00 and the end of the 20:00 hour, the post with the most new reposts was livedoor’s at 10:51, 3744, about KDDI’s apology; next came an individual user’s post at 11:57 with 3608, the post by TV Asahi’s Hōdō Station account at 23:15 on the 21st with 2463, and an individual user’s post at 15:58 with 207084.
  • 10-23: 89,278 posts. The day’s low was 1545 at 03:00; 5205 at 07:00 and 5238 at 12:00; from 13:00 to 20:00 each hour had 2882 to 4020 posts, then 4634 at 21:00 and a day’s high of 5413 at 22:00. Between 00:00 and the end of the 21:00 hour, the three posts with the most new reposts were all posted between 20:12 and 20:36 on the 22nd: one by ちょうなん貴則 of the Democratic Party for the People at 20:36, 6020, relaying Mongolian reports on why and on whose permission the group entered the reserve; one by the individual user 「異邦人」 at 20:12, 4144, criticising the government’s silence; and one by the individual user 「キムラ〜」 at 20:18, 3834, ending 「報道すら10 日以上寝かしてたって何…？」 (and even the news sat on it for more than ten days?). KDDI’s PR post linking the announcement at 20:42 had 701 reposts by the end of the 21:00 hour85.
  • 10-24: 68,933 posts. The day’s low was 868 at 04:00; the count rose through the morning to 4336 at 11:00, each hour from 14:00 to 19:00 had 2722 to 3011 posts, and the day’s high was 4422 at 21:00. The post with the most new reposts that day was the individual user 「ないさろーる」’s at 02:48, 5349, relaying a Mongolian news site: the border guard had announced that Mobicom’s executives entered for the ceremony with formal permission, and that the stories of drunkenness, fishing and bribery were false. Next came KDDI’s PR post of 20:42 on the 23rd with 5178; the writer 数多久遠’s post at 22:02 on the 23rd with 3319, saying the matter had finally become clear and that some country seemed to be behind the early fierce bashing of Japan; 宮本悟’s post at 21:11 on the 23rd with 2629, noting after KDDI’s announcement that the only Japanese among the 13 was CEO Ochi and that the visit was at the border ports authority’s request; and 「なん速ニュース」’s post at 16:24 with 2256, setting Xinhua’s reports against the denials by Mongolia’s border protection agency, Mobicom and KDDI, and criticising Chinese media. By the end of the 23:00 hour on the 24th, KDDI’s PR post had 8009 reposts in total86.
  • 10-25: 66,216 posts. The day’s low was 672 at 04:00; 3689 at 08:00 and a day’s high of 5679 at 09:00, after which the count fell roughly hour by hour to 1793 at 23:00. Of the five posts with the most new reposts that day, four were individual posts from 10-25 itself: 「月風」’s at 05:29 with 11337, listing the claims of fishing, poaching and entry without a permit one by one and saying that, by KDDI’s announcement of the 23rd, all of them were rumours; 「じゅんいちろう」’s at 07:43 with 8700, saying Asashoryu’s post had turned the situation around; 「あーぁ」’s at 11:29 with 7829, headed 「大どんでん返し」 (a complete reversal), citing Asashoryu’s question on the 21st about why nobody mentions the Mongolian MPs who took the group there; 「なん速ニュース」’s of 16:24 on the 24th with 3455; and 「Sato_海外の経営者から見た日本」’s at 12:26 with 2317, calling it an 「実験」 (experiment) to set Japanese and Chinese people against each other. KDDI’s PR post of the 23rd had 1147 new reposts that day and 9277 in total by the end of the 18:00 hour on the 26th87.
  • 10-26: 29,769 posts. The day’s low was 458 at 04:00; 2031 at 08:00 and a day’s high of 2143 at 12:00, coinciding with the reports of Chief Cabinet Secretary Kihara’s press conference; from 13:00 each hour had a little over a thousand, and 23:00 had 697. The post with the most new reposts that day was 「じゅんいちろう」’s at 07:08 with 4836, saying the cause was false information spread by Chinese state media and criticising Japanese TV stations for relaying it without checking; next came Asashoryu’s at 13:12 with 4625, 「あーぁ」’s of 11:29 on the 25th with 4392, Asashoryu’s at 13:21 with 2911, and 「月風」’s of 05:29 on the 25th with 2308. Asashoryu’s two posts contain none of the fire terms in the query and are not included in the counts above88.
  • 10-27: 12,086 posts, less than half of the 26th. The day’s low was 204 at 03:00 and the high 889 at 07:00; from the afternoon each hour had 383 to 557. The post with the most new reposts that day was 「じゅんいちろう」’s at 07:28 with 2063, saying Chinese media played up stories of firefighting heroics in Inner Mongolia because they did not want attention on Inner Mongolia’s military facilities and the suppression of language there; next came his post of the 26th with 1955, Asashoryu’s of 13:12 on the 26th with 1617, and 「Shota」’s of 05:45 on the 26th with 1067, saying that of the 15 people in the vehicles only one, from KDDI, was Japanese and that local MPs had taken them there: 「完全に接待じゃないの？」 (wasn’t it plain hospitality?)88.
  • 10-28: 8,770 posts. The day’s low was 130 at 03:00 and the high 618 at 12:00. The two posts with the most new reposts that day were 「Shota」’s of 21:58 on the 27th with 2814 and 「𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐎𝐊𝐈𝐍」’s of 20:47 on the 27th with 1504; both praise Asashoryu for disputing the view that 「日本人だけが悪い」 (only the Japanese are to blame) and for saying he would go to the Prime Minister’s Office, and large parts of the two are worded the same. Next came 「じゅんいちろう」’s at 11:57 with 1280, saying the fire was in a historic sacred place connected with the Battle of Khalkhin Gol (Nomonhan), and Yang Haiying’s at 08:56 with 518, saying that this fire and the controversy over the TBS drama VIVANT were both Chinese attempts to drive Japan and Mongolia apart. KDDI’s PR post of the 23rd had 3 new reposts that day and 9297 in total by the end of the 23:00 hour on the 28th88.
  • 10-29: 11,491 posts, about 30% more than the 28th. From 02:00 to 05:00 each hour had 56 to 98, with the day’s low of 56 at 03:00; 798 at 12:00, 824 at 15:00 and a day’s high of 1140 at 16:00, then 1118 and 1059 at 17:00 and 18:00. The rise coincides with Prime Minister Takaichi’s post at 15:27. The 22:00 and 23:00 hours had 584 and 460. Between 00:00 and 22:00, the post with the most new reposts was Takaichi’s, with 2729; next came 「あーぁ」’s at 10:24 with 1572, criticising Xinhua’s initial reports in chronological order; 「𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐎𝐊𝐈𝐍」’s of 20:47 on the 27th with 961; 「湯浅忠雄」’s at 10:14 with 916, saying he had heard that Mongolia’s 5G would be built by Xiaomi and Huawei and suspecting that the affair was meant to damage Japan’s credibility, without giving a source; and TotalNewsWorld’s at 10:15 with 535, giving the burned area as about 520,000 ha. The official burned area of 504,960.4 ha published by the Mongolian side on 10-28 is quoted directly in only one Japanese-language post found by search, which was not reposted. KDDI’s PR post had 2 new reposts that day, 9299 in total89.
  • 10-30: 6,621 posts. From 06:00 to 09:00 each hour had 430 to 527, with the day’s high of 527 at 08:00; from 12:00 to 21:00 each hour had 192 to 371, then 156 at 22:00 and the day’s low of 121 at 23:00. Between 00:00 and 22:00, the post with the most new reposts was 「あーぁ」’s of 10:24 on the 29th, with 1445; next came Prime Minister Takaichi’s of 15:27 on the 29th with 963; Fujii Seira’s at 00:19 on the 30th with 924, quoting the Cabinet Public Relations Secretary’s post of 20:31 on the 29th about the phone call and saying the photo attached to it had nothing to do with the fire and was an older one, which could make it look as if Japan had apologised and been forgiven; 「湯浅忠雄」’s of 10:14 on the 29th with 440; and Sakamoto Chiaki’s of 21:06 on the 29th with 364, asking what kind of sensibility puts a photo of the smiling prime minister on a government post about the fire. The Cabinet Public Relations Secretary’s post states that the photo was taken during last month’s visit to Japan. KDDI’s PR post had no new reposts that day90.
  • 10-31: 1,411 posts. The day’s high was 113 at 07:00 and the low 18 at 20:00. The post with the most new reposts was again 「あーぁ」’s of 10:24 on the 29th, with 299; next came Prime Minister Takaichi’s of 15:27 on the 29th with 188; Kito Masaki’s at 12:19 on the 30th with 86, sharing a Yahoo News report that Asashoryu had written 「日本人が悪いじゃなく」 (it is not that the Japanese are to blame) and planned to visit the Prime Minister’s Office, and saying that Asashoryu’s series of neutral posts shows how much exchange between foreign residents and Japanese people matters; Fujii Seira’s of 00:19 on the 30th with 64; and Tanaka Kenji’s at 16:28 on the 30th with 61, sharing a Josei Jishin report that Prime Minister Takaichi’s response had been 「遅すぎる」 (far too slow) and saying that it was only China stirring things up behind the scenes and that Yahoo News had lately turned entirely against Takaichi. Asashoryu’s post of 13:21 on the 26th had 81 new reposts that day and is not included in the counts above. KDDI’s PR post had 1 new repost that day, 9300 in total91.
  • 11-01: 335 posts, less than a quarter of 10-31. The low was 3 at 03:00 and the high 32 at 18:00. The post with the most new reposts was 「hideko Wada」’s of 09:16, with 59: citing an Asahi Shimbun report on the disaster agency’s technology budget, it says the Takaichi government wants to market wildfire-fighting technology and the like abroad while evacuees in Kumamoto still live in cardboard partitions and a Japanese company has started a huge fire on the Mongolian steppe. Next came 「日向端トム子」’s post of 14:08 on the 31st with 29, a list of LDP issues to keep digging up, including 「モンゴルの火災の不誠実な対応」 (the dishonest handling of the Mongolia fire); 「あーぁ」’s post of 10:24 on the 29th with 20; Funakoshi Takashi’s post of 20:59 on the 31st with 16, saying he had talked on the Asahi Shimbun podcast about how the fire was reported, and that what he discussed was 「私たちがどう判断したか」 (how we made our own decisions); and Prime Minister Takaichi’s post of 15:27 on the 29th with 992.
  • 11-02: 524 posts. The low was 2, at 01:00, 02:00 and 04:00. The 20:00 and 21:00 hours had 66 and 104 posts, 36 and 59 of them not reposts, more than the hours around them; Grok did not check them one by one. The post with the most new reposts was a reply by 「Eri_9mapDotPub🐸」 at 14:55, with 70; its whole text is 「こないだ モンゴルでやらかした #KDDI も」 (and KDDI, which messed up in Mongolia the other day), replying in a thread about SoftBank and two big banks being hurt by an AI bubble. Next came 「nageune31」’s post of 09:38 with 63, saying that according to Mongolian media, the entry application Mobicom gave the border troops on 10-05 listed, besides inspecting the network, the purpose 「ヌムルグ保護区の美しい自然環境探訪」 (exploring the beautiful nature of the Nömrög reserve), and asking why KDDI does not mention it; it links a YouTube video, and I have not found the application itself; Өдрийн сонин’s report of 10-20 says the same, attributing it to Mobicom administrative staff speaking informally93. Then 「hideko Wada」’s post of the 1st with 33; CGTN JAPANESE’s post of the Tashiro interview at 22:37 on the 1st with 23; every other post had fewer than 1092.
  • 11-03: 463 posts. The low was 1 at 05:00 and the high 71 at 19:00. From 00:00 to 23:00 the post with the most new reposts was Watase Yuya’s of 19:09, with 79, saying the locals do not much care about the Japan connection, that Japan’s left-wing media overreacted to Chinese media, and that he had learned Mobicom (written 「モバコム」) is well regarded in normal times. Next came Watanuki Kensuke’s post of 16:48 with 44, saying the news of the Mongolia fire reminded him of a scene in the manga 『虹色のトロツキー』; it had 95,000 views. Then a reply by 「椀33」 at 21:55 on the 2nd with 37, saying 「モンゴルの火災でも消火してくれたのは中国なのに」 (even in the Mongolia fire it was China that put it out); a post by 「🪡」 at 10:33 with 32, complaining that the media report neither political problems nor the trouble Japanese companies cause abroad, with the Mongolia fire in parentheses; and 「RedChirpingBird_QAJF」’s post of 00:28 with 31, speculating that KDDI’s blunder was meant to make Japan look base and owe China an apology. KDDI’s PR post had no new reposts from 11-01 to 11-03, 9300 in total92.
  • 11-04: 228 posts, less than half of 11-03. The low was 1 at 21:00 and the high 19 at 12:00. The post with the most new reposts was Watase Yuya’s of 11-03 19:09, with 77. Then 「RedChirpingBird_QAJF」’s reply of 14:04 with 14, which mentions the foreign ministry sending JICA experts and speculates that reports about Mongolia are meant to distract from human trafficking; Watanuki Kensuke’s of 11-03 with 13; 「椀33」’s of 11-02 with 11; 「RedChirpingBird_QAJF」’s of 11-03 00:28 with 1094.
  • 11-05: 113 posts. The 02:00, 04:00 and 11:00 hours had none, and the high was 20 at 14:00. The post with the most new reposts was 「RedChirpingBird_QAJF」’s of 11-03 00:28, with 26. Then 「Eri_9mapDotPub🐸」’s of 11-02 and 「RedChirpingBird_QAJF」’s of 11-04 with 10 each; 「椀33」’s with 9; and an older post by 「Eri_9mapDotPub🐸」 from October with 8, saying that a fire broke out at the VIVANT location, that China put it out and that Japanese media do not report it94.
  • 11-06: 182 posts, 100 of them reposts. The 04:00 and 05:00 hours had none; the count rose from 16:00, and the high was 28 at 20:00, close to the times of the Asahi Shimbun’s post at 19:56 and the Yomiuri’s at 20:11 reporting the KDDI president’s apology. The post with the most new reposts was the Asahi Shimbun’s, with 8. Then the Yomiuri’s with 7; Niconico News’s post of 21:45 carrying the Record China translation with 6; and Prime Minister Takaichi’s of 10-29 with 675.
  • 11-07: 1,926 posts, 1,799 of them reposts, more than the 1,411 of 10-31. The low was 6 at 03:00; from 06:00 to 12:00 there were 57 to 92 an hour, 144 at 19:00, and the high was 311 at 21:00. The post with the most new reposts was Niconico News’s of 11-06 21:45, with 932. Then Hamusoku’s of 18:22 with 463, relaying the same account; 「RAPT理論+α」’s of 19:12 with 109, saying the KDDI president apologised for the grassland fire and for the leak of 12.23 million email addresses but said nothing about compensation; 「もえるあじあ」’s of 20:41 with 39, mocking Chinese media and saying the fire had instead brought about Mongolia–Japan friendship; and the Asahi Shimbun’s of 11-06 with 475.
  • 11-08: 2,193 posts, 2,105 of them reposts. The low was 43 at 03:00 and the high 167 at 08:00, after which the count fell gradually to 50 at 23:00. The post with the most new reposts was Hoshu Sokuho’s of 11-07 23:48, with 1,026, which retells in images how a Japanese company caused a fire, Mongolia sought accountability, the leaders’ call turned it into friendship and Chinese media objected. Then Hamusoku’s with 352, Niconico News’s with 293, 「もえるあじあ」’s with 60 and 「RAPT理論+α」’s with 5475.
  • 11-09 (through the end of the 20:00 hour): 198 posts, 156 of them reposts. The high was 25 at 00:00 and the low 1 at 17:00. The posts with the most new reposts were Niconico News’s with 38 and Hoshu Sokuho’s with 34. Then 「空色ソックス」’s of 18:45 with 12, saying the string of bad policies should not push aside the fact that 80% of the reserve burned; and 「鈴木護憲派」’s of 19:31 with 6, asking 「モンゴルの火災の件はどうなったんだ？」 (what happened with the Mongolia fire?). The KDDI PR post had no new reposts from 11-06 to 11-09; Prime Minister Takaichi’s post had 6 on 11-06 and none after that75.

Note: the border authority’s passage permit covered 13 people in 5 vehicles; KDDI’s announcement says Mobicom had 7 people in 2 vehicles.

People did want to know. The interest was visible on X from the 17th and was in the thousands by the 19th, and mainstream media came more than a day later still. By the time Kyodo published, the hourly post count on X had passed its peak, and the next day’s total exceeded the previous 15 days combined. For an incident caused by a subsidiary of a listed Japanese company, the Japanese public’s primary sources were Chinese and Mongolian reports, translated and republished on X by individuals and portal sites. Mainstream media arrived last.

I have started to doubt whether journalistic professionalism and investigative reporting as a trade still exist in practice in Japan. I am somewhat disappointed.

Individuals

Apart from the media, I also checked whether anyone had done their own analysis.

On Google, restricted to 8 to 19 October, I searched the Japanese keywords モンゴル, 草原火災, ドルノド, ヌムルグ, KDDI, モビコム, 衛星画像 and ひまわり; on X I searched period by period with lang:ja and date filters. Under 衛星画像 (satellite imagery) and ひまわり (Himawari), the only result was the Japanese version of my own post. Every other post was a relay: of foreign media before the 17th, and of SCMP, Xinhua and Kyodo after it, plus some screenshots of US remote sensing products. I also had Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek and Grok each search; the results were the same.

Japan has no firewall, its networks are fast, and access to US open datasets is very quick. My post used only free public data and public methods; anyone interested in this field could have produced it in the same 12 days. If my post is worth 80 points, I would have hoped for at least a 60- or 70-point piece from within Japan. Still, whether individuals do this affects thousands or tens of thousands of people; whether mainstream media do it affects society as a whole. Why no individual analysis appeared, I do not know.

China

China has its own problems with transparency; that needs no elaboration. For this event, though, a few facts are comparable:

  • About 30 minutes after the fire started, a fire lookout tower in Hinggan League had spotted it; deployment along the border began the next day.
  • Xinhua published on the 11th, CCTV and People’s Daily followed from the 13th, and Southern Weekly had an on-site report on the 18th.
  • On the 9th, the day after the fire started, the National Satellite Meteorological Centre published FY-4C fire pixel monitoring and thematic maps on its FY Emergency Support page for international users on disaster prevention and mitigation; the page is in English.
  • On the 12th, the fourth day of the fire, the National Meteorological Centre publicly released FY-4C fire monitoring and a three-day weather and fire danger forecast, signed by four agencies.
  • At least one organisation in China achieved similar results with similar techniques; I will not go into details.

On the Chinese side there was an official satellite monitoring page on the day after the fire started, a wire story on day 3, and the National Meteorological Centre’s monitoring and forecast bulletin on day 4; on the Japanese side, the first report, relaying other outlets, came on day 12.

Before KDDI’s announcement of the 23rd, Chinese state media had already begun demanding that KDDI apologise to China as well. A Global Times commentary, republished at about 17:47 Beijing time on the 21st, said China had deployed more than 3,400 people to stop the fire and that the company and those responsible should apologise to China95. Changanjie Zhishi, run by the Beijing Daily, posted at 17:43 Beijing time on the 22nd that the company had apologised only to Mongolia, and that Japanese media had not reported the fire in its early stages96.

On the 27th, a Xinhua story datelined Ulaanbaatar reported the Mongolian government’s meeting of the 26th and wrote 「蒙古国官方调查初步确认，此次火灾由蒙古国日资背景电信企业莫比康公司车队活动引发」 (Mongolia’s official investigation has preliminarily confirmed that the fire was caused by the activities of a convoy of Mobicom, a Mongolian telecom company with Japanese capital)61. That night a Global Times commentary, citing TV Asahi’s report on Motegi’s dispatch of experts, said 「这场由日本企业相关车辆引发的大火，自起火过去近两周后才等到日本政府层面正式行动」 (for this fire started by a vehicle linked to a Japanese company, formal action at the level of the Japanese government came only nearly two weeks after it started)62.

On the evening of the 30th, the Global Times relayed this Josei Jishin report under the headline 「3周了，高市早苗终于表态」 (Three weeks on, Takaichi finally speaks). It opens with 「这在日本国内引发大量批评，舆论直指高市政府“应对迟缓”」 (this drew heavy criticism in Japan, with public opinion pointing straight at the Takaichi government’s “slow response”) and ends with 「也有中国网民表示，事发至今，高市政府既没有向中方致歉，也未对中方的灭火援助表达谢意」 (some Chinese internet users also said that the Takaichi government has neither apologised to China nor thanked it for its firefighting help)68. Note: Josei Jishin attributes this to a journalist based in China, who says 「反日感情の強い層から非難の声が出ています」 (criticism is coming from people with strong anti-Japanese feeling).

On the morning of the 31st, CCTV’s morning news programme 《朝闻天下》 aired an interview with the Japanese economist Tashiro Hidetoshi under the headline 「日本学者：日本未对该事件给予应有的关注」 (Japanese scholar: Japan has not paid the event the attention it deserves)69. He said Japanese media did not report the fire until the 20th and that, although the company involved is a household name in Japan, public attention was remarkably low; restoration on this scale 「绝不是一家企业能够承担的」 (is by no means something one company can shoulder), and the Japanese government should soon put forward a very long-term plan to restore the grassland and negotiate it seriously with Mongolia, to keep the matter from turning political. At 22:37 JST on 11-01, CGTN JAPANESE posted a Japanese version of the interview on X, headlined 「日系企業関連火災の原因に疑問、高市早苗氏の見舞いは責任の回避か=日本人学者」 (Doubts about the cause of the fire linked to a Japanese company; is Takaichi’s sympathy a way of avoiding responsibility? — a Japanese scholar)92.

On the morning of November 5, Guancha ran a commentary by its columnist Wen Shaoqing71. It says Mongolia raised no apology, compensation or legal accountability in the leaders’ call of the 29th and praised Japan instead; and that since Mobicom is the target of investigation and recovery, Japanese participation in the damage assessment amounts to handing decisions on damages and reconstruction to the parent company’s home country. At 17:00 JST on 11-06, Record China published a Japanese translation of the commentary, under a headline saying that a grassland fire caused by a Japanese company had somehow become a symbol of Mongolia–Japan “friendship”; the translation gives no author74. Niconico News posted it on X that evening, aggregator sites such as Hamusoku and Hoshu Sokuho carried it on 11-07 and 11-08, and Japanese-language posts on X climbed back to about two thousand a day, as the counts above show.

Note: I have found no Mongolian source for the article’s statement that the police opened a case on October 20. Nutag.mn reports a Dornod provincial police team starting work on 10-174, and the environment minister said a case had been opened on 10-2657. The article says Ochi’s group entered on the verbal permission of a border colonel; the border authority’s statement says passage permits were issued on application and under the relevant legal provisions7. The assessment is carried out by a Mongolian team of over 50 and forensic bodies, with Japan offering to send people; see the accounts post.

Note: in the Mongolian government press office’s release on that meeting, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change said the issue had been raised that the convoy entered without notifying the reserve’s administration and that a case had been opened, and the prime minister asked who granted permission, for what purpose they entered and who was responsible for fire safety; the release says nothing about an investigation having 「初步确认」 (preliminarily confirmed) the cause57. That the vehicle fire spread to the grassland is what Mobicom’s statement of 10-12 and KDDI’s announcement of 10-23 themselves acknowledge. Chief Cabinet Secretary Kihara’s statement came on day 18 after the fire started, and Foreign Minister Motegi’s announcement of the dispatch on day 19.

Note: the Changanjie Zhishi piece states as fact that the Mobicom group entered the reserve to fish for taimen. The claim first appeared in a 10-12 report by the Mongolian outlet Eguur.mn; Xinhua’s report of 23:46 Beijing time on the 21st also cited 「多家蒙古国媒体」 (several Mongolian media) as saying the group planned to hunt in the reserve or fish for an endangered species, without naming the outlets97; the General Authority for Border Protection’s statement of 10-14 called the rumours of officials travelling with the group, drinking, bribery, fighting and hunting untrue and did not mention fishing; as of 10-28 the Mongolian police have not published any findings.

Where my yardstick comes from

I grew up reading the work of Western journalists and investigative reporters, as well as Chinese investigative reporters and Qdaily. They could state clearly when, where and what happened, and they laid out causes and consequences as a chain as far as they could.

I have also subscribed to The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs and The Economist. These shaped my standard for judging whether an analysis holds up. That is the yardstick, and this post measures Japanese mainstream media against it.

That is all.

  1. Alterna, モンゴルの自然保護区で大規模火災、出火原因は日系企業 (Japanese), 2026-10-21. Ownership figure from KDDI’s annual securities report. ↩︎ ↩︎

  2. ikon.mn, full text of Mobicom’s statement (Mongolian), 2026-10-12. ↩︎ ↩︎

  3. Eguur.mn, У.Отгонбаяр гишүүний Дорнодод дагуулж очсон “Мобиком”-ын захирлууд тул агнахаар яваад, Нөмрөгийн дархан цаазат газрыг шатаажээ (Mongolian), 2026-10-12. ↩︎

  4. nutag.mn, Dornod police working group begins investigating the cause of the fire (Mongolian), 2026-10-17. ↩︎ ↩︎

  5. Mongolia National Emergency Management Agency, fully extinguished at 10-16 07:00 (Mongolian). ↩︎ ↩︎

  6. Montsame, Massive Wildfire Damage in Numrug Reserve to Be Assessed, 2026-10-20. ↩︎ ↩︎

  7. Eguur.mn, full text of the General Authority for Border Protection statement (Mongolian), 2026-10-14. ↩︎ ↩︎

  8. Mongolia National Emergency Management Agency, daily report for 10-12 (Mongolian). ↩︎

  9. Hinggan Forestry and Grassland, 鏖战七天七夜 坚守北疆防线 (Chinese), 2026-10-16. ↩︎

  10. National Satellite Meteorological Centre, Wildfire in Mongolia, 2026-10-09, FY Emergency Support page for international users on disaster prevention and mitigation, in English. ↩︎

  11. Xinhua, 蒙古国草原火蔓延至我边境 2000 余人正在堵截 (Chinese), 2026-10-11. ↩︎

  12. MNB, grassland fire in Khalkhgol sum contained (Mongolian), 2026-10-12. ↩︎

  13. National Meteorological Centre, 全球灾害性天气监测预报快讯 (Chinese), 2026-10-12 19:00, 《中蒙边境火情实况及未来三天天气及风险预报》. The link is a section page; select the 2026/10/13 03:00 issue in the list on the right. ↩︎

  14. Xinhua, 3400 余人布防堵截 (Chinese), 2026-10-13. ↩︎

  15. NTV МЭДЭЭ, interview with the Mobicom CEO, 2026-10-14. ↩︎

  16. Song Wenzhou (@sohbunshu), 迷惑日本人、モンゴル草原に山火事を起こす, 2026-10-17. View and engagement counts as checked on 10-21; the same applies below. ↩︎

  17. Kabashima Mariko (@KNHjyohokyoku), モンゴル大規模草原火災、日本企業の車両が出火原因か, 2026-10-17 11:30 JST. ↩︎

  18. 藍白もなか (@aishiro_monaka), post at 18:42 JST on 2026-10-19, 1.64 million views when checked on 10-22. ↩︎

  19. Xinhua Japanese, モンゴル草原火災、日系企業の車両が原因 自然保護区へ進入, datelined Ulaanbaatar 19 October, posted at 00:22 UTC+8 on 10-20; republished shortly afterwards by livedoor, d menu and au Web Portal. ↩︎

  20. livedoor News (@livedoornews), 2026-10-20 18:40 JST, 17,879 reposts, 2,561 quotes, 46,365 likes; links to livedoor’s republication of Xinhua’s 10-19 Ulaanbaatar wire story. Post. ↩︎

  21. Kyodo, モンゴルで大規模草原火災　日系企業の車が原因か, 2026-10-20 22:07 JST; republished by Sankei at 22:20. ↩︎

  22. NEWS Post Seven, 「東京都の2 倍超」が焼失した大規模火災はなぜ起きたのかKDDIに取材, 2026-10-21. ↩︎

  23. TV Asahi (ANN), モンゴル草原で大規模火災　KDDIが謝罪　中国メディア「日本人が乗った車が原因」, 2026-10-21 16:12 JST. ↩︎

  24. FNN Prime Online, モンゴル草原で大規模火災 出火元はKDDI 子会社の車両か、KDDIが謝罪 東京都の2.4 倍焼失、中国にも延焼迫る, 2026-10-21 16:41 JST. ↩︎

  25. Alterna, ［続報］「モンゴル草原火災を極めて重く受け止める」と親会社のKDDIがコメント, 2026-10-21. ↩︎

  26. TV Asahi (ANN), 「国民の怒りは頂点に」日系企業の車から出火か…モンゴル自然保護区で大規模火災, 2026-10-22 00:24 JST. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  27. Asashoryu (@Asashoryu), post at 13:44 JST on 2026-10-21; 763k views and 1,328 reposts when checked on 10-22. ↩︎ ↩︎

  28. Sanspo, 元朝青龍「一方的な日本人が悪いじゃなくて、現地で連れて行った…」, 2026-10-22 17:04 JST. ↩︎

  29. Asahi Shimbun, モンゴルで大規模な草原火災　KDDI 現地子会社の車から出火か, 2026-10-22 21:00 JST, by 平賀拓哉 (Beijing). The prime minister’s instruction is cited from Mongolian state broadcasting. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  30. Gifu Shimbun (Kyodo), モンゴルで大規模草原火災　中国国境地帯の自然保護区　ＫＤＤＩ関係車両が原因か, 2026-10-22 05:00 JST. ↩︎

  31. Nikkei (Kyodo), モンゴルで大規模な草原火災　KDDI 系企業幹部の乗った車が火元か, 2026-10-22 14:04 JST. ↩︎

  32. TV Asahi (ANN), 東京都 2つ分以上の草原焼失　モンゴルの自然保護区　KDDI 子会社 CEO 乗った車から出火, 2026-10-22 10:48 JST; 【経緯まとめ】モンゴルで大規模火災、自然保護区の約 8 割が焼ける　火元はKDDIグループ会社の幹部ら乗った車か, 13:27 JST. ↩︎

  33. TBS NEWS DIG (JNN), モンゴルの自然保護区で大規模草原火災　日系企業の車から出火か, 2026-10-22 16:14 JST. ↩︎

  34. For example @suikyokitan at 19:25 JST: 「NHKニュースでモンゴルの火災でKDDIが謝罪と放送。」 (NHK News reported that KDDI apologised over the Mongolian fire); another post at 19:48 names the 7 p.m. news, and @D9bf0NRDYrL21Ba at 20:01 JST writes 「NHK7 時のニュースで25 分から１分間だけ放送」 (on NHK’s 7 o’clock news, aired for just one minute from 25 past). I could not check NHK’s broadcast content or exact time directly; this rests on viewers’ posts. ↩︎

  35. The Mainichi, モンゴル草原火災でKDDI 関連企業が謝罪　東京都 2 個分が焼失, 2026-10-22 19:17 JST, by 河津啓介 (Beijing) and 石山絵歩. ↩︎

  36. Embassy of Japan in Mongolia, ヌムルグ自然保護区における火災発生に関するお見舞いメッセージ, dated Reiwa 8 (2026) 10-22. The page does not give a time of publication. ↩︎ ↩︎

  37. NHK, モンゴル自然保護区で大規模火災 通信大手 KDDIが謝罪, 2026-10-23 02:34 JST. ↩︎ ↩︎

  38. FNN Prime Online, 「幻の巨大魚釣りに現地へ」報道も…モンゴル大規模火災、出火元はKDDI 子会社幹部らの車か トップ謝罪も副首相「おわびだけでは済まされない」, 2026-10-23 12:00 JST. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  39. Jiji Press, モンゴル自然保護区で大規模火災　ＫＤＤＩ関連企業の車両が火元か, 2026-10-23 14:15 JST. ↩︎ ↩︎

  40. Nippon TV NEWS NNN, KDDIが謝罪「グループ会社の活動に関連して発生」モンゴル自然保護区で大規模火災, 2026-10-23 14:34 JST; second story, 19:50 JST. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  41. Toyo Keizai Online, モンゴルの大草原を焼いたKDDI 子会社の車両火災､自然保護区の8 割が被害か……現場に日本人 CEO､損害賠償は必至, 2026-10-23 15:00 JST, Keisuke Fukuda. ↩︎

  42. Sankei Shimbun, 日系企業関連のモンゴル大火災　国民・榛葉氏「国として向き合わねば」親日国へ対応求める, 2026-10-23 15:38 JST, by 奥原慎平. ↩︎

  43. KDDI, モンゴルのヌムルグ自然保護区において2026 年 10 月 8 日に発生した草原火災についてのお詫び, 2026-10-23; the page gives the publication time as 16:00 JST. ↩︎ ↩︎

  44. Sankei Shimbun, モンゴルの自然保護区の8 割が被害　KDDI 子会社の車両火元、当局が賠償請求検討, 2026-10-23 19:32 JST, by 三塚聖平 (Beijing) and 高木克聡 (economics desk). ↩︎ ↩︎

  45. Yomiuri Shimbun, モンゴルの自然保護区で大規模な草原火災…ＫＤＤＩ子会社の車列から出火か、モンゴル側は補償を求める考え, 2026-10-23 20:23 JST, by 中川孝之 (Beijing). ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  46. KDDI 広報部 (@kddipr), post at 20:42 JST on 2026-10-23, the release title and newsroom link, posted via IFTTT; 307k views, 121 replies, 1,738 reposts and 1,909 likes when checked at 22:17 on 10-23. ↩︎ ↩︎

  47. Nikkei, KDDI、モンゴルの大規模火災で謝罪　子会社社員が車移動時に発生, 2026-10-23 21:49 JST. ↩︎ ↩︎

  48. Kyodo News, モンゴル火災「違反なし」　KDDI、SNS 臆測否定 (47NEWS), 2026-10-23 22:40 JST. ↩︎

  49. AFP-Jiji, 日本の通信大手 KDDI、モンゴル草原火災で謝罪 経緯説明 (Yahoo! News), 2026-10-24 11:04 JST. ↩︎

  50. Jiji Press, モンゴル当局が賠償請求検討　ＫＤＤＩ「法令違反ない」―草原火災, 2026-10-24 15:23 JST. ↩︎

  51. Kyodo News, 草原火災、賠償請求検討も　モンゴル「消火に税負担」 (Yahoo! News), 2026-10-24 20:37 JST, datelined Ulaanbaatar. ↩︎ ↩︎

  52. Xinhua, 蒙古国考虑就草原火灾向涉事日企索赔 (republished by Guangming Online), datelined Beijing 25 October; posted on Guangming Online at 09:40 on 2026-10-26. ↩︎ ↩︎

  53. Өрөг.МН, Мобиком: Нөмрөгт шалгалтын ажиллагаа явагдаж байгаа учир гэм буруугийн талаар одоо ярих боломжгүй (Mongolian), 2026-10-26 12:27; see also iKon’s report the same day. ↩︎

  54. Jiji Press, 政府、モンゴル火災「深刻に受け止め」, 2026-10-26 12:07 JST. ↩︎ ↩︎

  55. NHK, モンゴル大規模火災“地域の回復に協力したい” 木原官房長官, 2026-10-26 12:52 JST. ↩︎ ↩︎

  56. Asashoryu (@Asashoryu), post at 13:12 JST on 2026-10-26, 595k views and 4,171 reposts when checked at 20:00 on 10-26; 13:21 JST, 373k views and 2,666 reposts. See also J-CAST, 18:30 JST on 10-26. ↩︎ ↩︎

  57. Mongolian government press office, Нөмрөгийн түймэртэй холбогдуулан өгсөн үүрэг даалгаврын биелэлтийг хянаж, ажлаа эрчимжүүлэхийг даалгав (Instructs to monitor the orders given on the Nömrög fire and step up the work; republished by MNB), 2026-10-27 09:09; meeting held on 10-26. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  58. iKon, «Японы Засгийн газар Нөмрөгийн ДЦГ-ыг нөхөн сэргээх, экосистемийг хамгаалах чиглэлээр бүх талын дэмжлэг үзүүлэхэд бэлэн» (The Japanese government is ready to give every support to restoring the Nömrög reserve and protecting its ecosystem), 2026-10-27 10:14; the meeting was on 10-26. ↩︎ ↩︎

  59. Kyodo, モンゴル火災で専門家を派遣　茂木外相「被害の回復向け協力」 (Yahoo! News), 2026-10-27 11:52 JST. ↩︎ ↩︎

  60. The Mainichi, モンゴル草原火災、日本政府が森林保護のJICA専門家を派遣へ (Yahoo! News), 2026-10-27 15:11 JST, by Nomaguchi Yo. ↩︎ ↩︎

  61. Xinhua, 蒙古国总理将东部保护区大火定性为严重生态事件 (Mongolia’s prime minister calls the fire in the eastern reserve a serious ecological incident), datelined Ulaanbaatar 27 October, 2026-10-27 12:29. ↩︎ ↩︎

  62. Global Times commentary, 蒙古国草原大火半个月后，日本才想起…… (Half a month after Mongolia’s grassland fire, Japan finally remembers…; republished by Sina), 2026-10-27 23:52, by Tang Luyi. ↩︎ ↩︎

  63. Takaichi Sanae (@takaichi_sanae), post at 15:27 JST on 2026-10-29; 1.52 million views, 821 replies and 3,139 reposts when checked at 22:48 on 10-29. ↩︎ ↩︎

  64. Kyodo, 首相、被害回復へ協力伝達　モンゴル火災で電話会談 (republished by the Ryukyu Shimpo), 2026-10-29 16:59 JST. ↩︎ ↩︎

  65. Mongolian government press office, Монгол Улсын Ерөнхий сайд Н.Учрал, Япон Улсын Ерөнхий сайд С.Такаичи нар утсаар ярив (Mongolia’s Prime Minister N. Uchral and Japan’s Prime Minister S. Takaichi speak by phone), 2026-10-29. ↩︎ ↩︎

  66. Takaguchi Kota, モンゴル大火災「認知戦」で日本が中国に完敗したワケ, Shukan Bunshun online, 2026-10-29 (issue of 2026-11-05). ↩︎

  67. Josei Jishin, 「対応が遅すぎる」高市首相　モンゴル火災発生から“3週間後に公式声明”に疑問の声…モンゴルと中国で未だに続く「強い反発」, 2026-10-30 14:45 JST, updated 16:17, Josei Jishin editorial department. ↩︎ ↩︎

  68. Global Times, 3周了，高市早苗终于表态 (Three weeks on, Takaichi finally speaks; republished by ifeng), 2026-10-30 22:05, Tang Luyi. ↩︎ ↩︎

  69. CCTV News, 日本学者：日方未对蒙古国草原火灾事件给予应有的关注 (Japanese scholar: Japan has not paid the Mongolian grassland fire the attention it deserves; CCTV News account on Tencent News), 2026-10-31 08:46; the programme video is on CCTV.com, 《朝闻天下》. ↩︎ ↩︎

  70. Yokoyama Wataru, KDDI日本人も関与、モンゴル自然保護区の草原火災…KDDIのずさんな広報体制, Naigai Times (via livedoor), 2026-11-02 06:59 JST. ↩︎

  71. Wen Shaoqing, 丧事喜办？蒙古国草原大火，竟成了蒙日“友谊”的注脚, Guancha, 2026-11-05 07:58. ↩︎ ↩︎

  72. Yasuhiro Koyama @surblue, X, 2026-11-06 16:02, 16:11, 16:34; for the written materials see KDDI’s earnings briefing page. ↩︎

  73. Kitagawa Kento, KDDI、2027年3月期上期は増収増益　モバイルなど好調――下期は楽天ローミング収入増も, K-tai Watch, 2026-11-06 22:05 JST, the 「主な質疑応答」 (main Q&A) section at the end. ↩︎

  74. Record China, 日系企業が起こした草原火災、なぜかモンゴルと日本の「友好」の象徴に―中国メディア, 2026-11-06 17:00 JST; carried by Niconico News as nw19964088. ↩︎ ↩︎

  75. Grok’s count at 21:00 on 2026-11-09. The hourly data from the 22:00 hour of 11-02 on were pulled again; over the 84 hours that overlap the version through the 09:00 hour of 11-06 the counts are identical. Through the 20:00 hour of 11-09 the total since 10-06 is 509,723, of which 488,013 are reposts. New reposts on 11-06: @asahi, 19:56, 8; @Yomiuri_Online, 20:11, 7; @nico_nico_news, 21:45, 6; @takaichi_sanae, 10-29 15:27, 6. On 11-07: @nico_nico_news’s, 932; @hamusoku, 18:22, 463; @Rapt_plusalpha, 19:12, 109; @moeruasia01, 20:41, 39; @asahi’s, 4. On 11-08: @hoshusokuhou, 11-07 23:48, 1,026; @hamusoku’s, 352; @nico_nico_news’s, 293; @moeruasia01’s, 60; @Rapt_plusalpha’s, 54. On 11-09, 00:00 to 20:00: @nico_nico_news’s, 38; @hoshusokuhou’s, 34; @skybluestocking, 18:45, 12; @Rapt_plusalpha’s, 8; @rururu260222, 19:31, 6. Candidates came from one page of reposts (about 25) for each peak hour, one page of original posts and a fixed list, counted one by one, about 48%, 87%, 88% and 69% of the day’s reposts; on 11-06 the coverage is under half, and the ranking may miss some. The post contents are Grok’s summaries; posting times were checked against the post IDs. The KDDI PR post had 0 on all 4 days; its page shows 11,991 reposts. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  76. The English-language daily The Japan Times published KDDI subsidiary faces criticism and questions over Mongolian wildfire by staff writer Tomoko Otake at 12:51 JST on 10-20, about 9 hours before Kyodo. It is an English-language outlet read mainly by foreign residents of Japan and readers abroad; the counts and discussion in this post cover only Japanese-language media aimed at readers in Japan. ↩︎

  77. MNB, Японы Засгийн газар Нөмрөгийн түймэрт өртсөн газар нутгийг нөхөн сэргээхэд хамтран ажиллахаа илэрхийлэв (Mongolian), 2026-10-26 15:57. ↩︎

  78. iKon, «Нөмрөгийн ДЦГ-ын хохирлын дүгнэлт ирэх сарын 6-нд гарна. Хугацаа наашлах боломжтой» (The damage assessment for the Nömrög reserve will be issued on the 6th of next month; it may come earlier), 2026-10-28 12:50. ↩︎

  79. Nikkan Sports, 元朝青龍がモンゴル草原火災の現地入り「横綱自ら現場の惨状を…」動物の死骸など被害写真を投稿 (Yahoo! News), 2026-10-28 15:02 JST. ↩︎

  80. J-CAST, モンゴル火災被害の自然保護区に元横綱・朝青龍が思いつづる　「多くの若者が命を落とした」激戦地だった, 2026-10-28 18:30 JST. ↩︎

  81. Counts by Grok, 2026-10-21, rerun on 10-22. The initial query was モンゴル 火災 lang:ja, 33,276 posts. To check recall it was expanded to combinations of place names and fire terms, joined with a company-name branch, with job-hunting noise excluded. The query actually used is (((モンゴル OR ドルノド OR ヌムルグ OR ハルハゴル OR ノムルグ OR ノムログ OR ハルフゴル OR ハルハ川) (火災 OR 草原火災 OR 山火事 OR 野火 OR 延焼 OR 焼失 OR 火事)) OR ((モビコム OR Mobicom OR KDDI) (モンゴル OR 保護区 OR 出火 OR 火災 OR 草原) -就活 -インターン -28卒 -選考 -面接 -火災保険 -CTEE -サムスン)) lang:ja, giving 52,926 posts for 10-06 to 10-20, of which 51,325 are reposts; of a sample of 90 from the added posts, 86 were on topic. The table uses the expanded numbers. 10-21 was added with the same query through the 21:00 hour, for a cumulative 125,607 posts since 10-06, of which 121,978 are reposts; the most recent hours may still change slightly as posts are deleted. On 10-22 the same query was rerun for 10-15 to the 20:00 hour of 10-22. Because the counts endpoint only covers the last 7 days, the 00:00 to 21:00 hours of 10-15 keep the 10-21 numbers. Over the 10-15 22:00 to 10-21 21:00 hours covered by both runs, no hour changed by more than 1%, and the total fell by 102, presumably from deleted posts or suspended accounts; the table and chart use the rerun numbers. Through the 20:00 hour of 10-22 the cumulative count since 10-06 is 185,862, of which 179,767 are reposts. Reposts were counted separately with is:retweet; JST days are split at 15:00 UTC. On 10-23 the same query was rerun for the 22:00 hour of 10-16 to the 21:00 hour of 10-23, with earlier hours kept from before. Over the 10-16 23:00 to 10-22 20:00 hours covered by both runs, only the 20:00 hour of 10-22 changed by more than 1% (6130 to 6066), and the total fell by 264; the table and chart use the rerun numbers. Through the 21:00 hour of 10-23 the cumulative count since 10-06 is 291,110, of which 279,741 are reposts. On 10-25 the same query was rerun for the 01:00 hour of 10-18 to the 23:00 hour of 10-24, with earlier hours kept from before. Over the 10-18 01:00 to 10-23 21:00 hours covered by both runs, 37 hours fell and none rose; the 8 hours that changed by more than 1% all come after the 21:00 hour of 10-22, the largest being the 16:00 hour of 10-23 (3740 to 3667), and the total fell by 1,167; the table and chart use the rerun numbers. Through the 23:00 hour of 10-24 the cumulative count since 10-06 is 369,599, of which 354,088 are reposts. On 10-26 the same query was rerun for the 20:00 hour of 10-19 to the 18:00 hour of 10-26, with earlier hours kept from before. Over the 10-19 20:00 to 10-24 23:00 hours covered by both runs, 39 hours fell and none rose; all changes come after the 09:00 hour of 10-23, 31 hours changed by more than 1%, the largest being the 17:00 hour of 10-23 (3794 to 3647), and the total fell by 2,402; the table and chart use the rerun numbers. Through the 18:00 hour of 10-26 the cumulative count since 10-06 is 458,427, of which 439,614 are reposts. On 10-29 the same query was rerun for the 01:00 hour of 10-22 to the 23:00 hour of 10-28, with earlier hours kept from before. Over the 10-22 01:00 to 10-26 18:00 hours covered by both runs, 23 hours fell and none rose, no hour changed by more than 1%, the largest change being the 18:00 hour of 10-26 (1152 to 1148), and the total fell by 52; the table and chart use the rerun numbers. Through the 23:00 hour of 10-28 the cumulative count since 10-06 is 484,060, of which 464,030 are reposts. 10-06 to 10-14 were counted post by post from search; from 10-15 the counts use X’s official hourly counts endpoint, not checked post by post, and that endpoint only covers the last 7 days. The ranking of reposted accounts was built by picking candidates from a sample of 300 and counting each; an account outside the sample ranking higher cannot be ruled out. Hourly data: mongolia_fire_D_hourly_jst.csv. ↩︎

  82. @kaminoyume27, post at 16:13 JST on 2026-10-18, 6,672 reposts. It uses 出火 and 草原 but not 火災, which is the direct reason the query was expanded. ↩︎

  83. @nichinichibijou, 2026-10-20 19:49 JST, quoting the livedoor post, 2,292 reposts. ↩︎

  84. Grok’s count on 2026-10-22; reposts are those added between 00:00 and the end of the 20:00 hour on 10-22: livedoor 10:51 3,744; @japan_miyu_ 11:57 3,608; @hst_tvasahi (報道ステーション＋サタステ) 10-21 23:15 2,463; @tkzwgrs 15:58 2,070; @cobta 13:24 1,781; @myokoi1962 13:16 1,757. The 10-22 version missed the 899 reposts this @hst_tvasahi post received between 00:00 and 09:00 on 10-22; Grok corrected this on 10-23. Candidates came from one page of reposts in each of 6 hours (149 in all) plus the first page of that day’s original posts; posts outside the candidates are not counted. ↩︎

  85. Grok’s count on 2026-10-23; reposts are those added between 00:00 and the end of the 21:00 hour on 10-23: @Takanori_Chonan (ちょうなん貴則｜国民民主党) 10-22 20:36 6,020; @Narodovlastiye (異邦人) 10-22 20:12 4,144; @seinougatakai (キムラ〜) 10-22 20:18 3,834; @mari64takahashi 10-21 22:07 2,213; @daisuke326 10-22 18:38 2,056. Candidates came from one page of reposts in each of 7 hours plus the first page of that day’s original posts, about 20 of which were counted individually. The 701 reposts of KDDI’s PR post at 20:42 are 32 in the 20:00 hour and 669 in the 21:00 hour. I read the top three posts on X myself. ↩︎

  86. Grok’s count on 2026-10-25; reposts are those added between 00:00 and the end of the 23:00 hour on 10-24: @nysalor (ないさろーる) 10-24 02:48 5,349; @kddipr (KDDI 広報部) 10-23 20:42 5,178; @kuon_amata (数多久遠) 10-23 22:02 3,319; @satoru_miyamoto (宮本悟) 10-23 21:11 2,629; @SOWIETK (なん速ニュース) 10-24 16:24 2,256; sixth is @paopao0128 with 2,150. Candidates came from one page of reposts in each of 6 hours on 10-24 (150 in all), the first page of that day’s original posts and 10-23’s top 6, 18 posts counted one by one. Of the 8,009 reposts of KDDI’s PR post, 2,831 came on 10-23 and 5,178 on 10-24; the repost count shown on the post page is counted differently and is not used. Posting times and content were checked by me on X; Grok gave times for three of these posts that did not match the X pages, and the X pages are followed here. ↩︎

  87. Grok’s count on 2026-10-26; reposts are those added between 00:00 and 24:00 on 10-25: @tskikaze (月風) 10-25 05:29 11,337; @PapalotX (じゅんいちろう｜物語る建築士) 10-25 07:43 8,700; @sxzBST (あーぁ) 10-25 11:29 7,829; @SOWIETK (なん速ニュース) 10-24 16:24 3,455; @hetare_keieisha (Sato_海外の経営者から見た日本) 10-25 12:26 2,317; sixth is @hidetomitanaka with 1,590. The top posts of 10-24 all fell back on 10-25: @nysalor 1,321, @kddipr 1,147. Candidates came from one page of reposts in each of 7 hours on 10-25 (174 in all), the first page of that day’s original posts and 10-24’s top 6, 15 posts counted one by one. Of the 9,277 reposts of KDDI’s PR post, 2,830 came on 10-23, 5,171 on 10-24, 1,147 on 10-25 and 129 between 00:00 and the 18:00 hour on 10-26; the first two are 1 and 7 lower than in the 10-25 count. Posting times and content were checked by me on X; 月風’s post shows an edit history on X. ↩︎

  88. Grok’s count on 2026-10-29; reposts are those added between 00:00 and 24:00 on each day. 10-26: @PapalotX (じゅんいちろう｜物語る建築士) 10-26 07:08 4,836; @Asashoryu 10-26 13:12 4,625; @sxzBST (あーぁ) 10-25 11:29 4,392; @Asashoryu 10-26 13:21 2,911; @tskikaze (月風) 10-25 05:29 2,308; sixth is @hetare_keieisha with 1,702. 10-27: @PapalotX 10-27 07:28 2,063; @PapalotX 10-26 07:08 1,955; @Asashoryu 10-26 13:12 1,617; @shota201907 (Shota | 脱サラを目指す会社員) 10-26 05:45 1,067; @sxzBST 10-25 11:29 1,065; sixth is @amatsuuni with 1,052. 10-28: @shota201907 10-27 21:58 2,814; @hirokin0966 (𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐎𝐊𝐈𝐍) 10-27 20:47 1,504; @PapalotX 10-28 11:57 1,280; @Hongnumongol99 (楊海英) 10-28 08:56 518; @PapalotX 10-27 07:28 515; sixth is @PapalotX 10-26 07:08 with 303. Asashoryu’s two posts contain none of the fire terms in the query, so they are not in the hourly counts or the repost samples and were added to the candidates separately; the 13:12 post had 4,625, 1,617 and 243 over the three days, the 13:21 post 2,911, 946 and 145. Candidates came from one page of reposts in each of 6 hours per day, the first page of that day’s original posts and the previous day’s top 6, plus the posts by KDDI’s PR account and Asashoryu: 22 posts over the three days, each counted individually. KDDI’s PR post had 133, 13 and 3 on 10-26 to 10-28. Posting times and content checked by me on X. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  89. Grok’s count at 22:00 on 2026-10-29. The hourly data from the 23:00 hour of 10-22 on were pulled again; over the 145 hours that overlap the version through the 23:00 hour of 10-28, the total is 20 lower and no hour changed by more than 1%. New reposts between 00:00 and 22:00 on 10-29: @takaichi_sanae 10-29 15:27 2,729; @sxzBST 10-29 10:24 1,572; @hirokin0966 10-27 20:47 961; @GrwaNnKqMn5nG68 (湯浅忠雄 YUASA TADAO) 10-29 10:14 916; @turningpointjpn (TotalNewsWorld) 10-29 10:15 535; sixth is @junhagemay at 00:39 with 500. Candidates came from one page of reposts in each of 7 hours, the first page of that day’s original posts, 10-28’s top 6, the posts by KDDI’s PR account and Asashoryu, and posts found by searching for terms such as 「504960」, 「50.5万」 and 「焼失面積」: 15 posts, each counted individually. Search for the official area: 49 posts over all of 10-28 and 5 between 00:00 and 22:00 on 10-29; the only one quoting 504,960.4 ha directly is @akirame558746 at 10:47 on 10-29, with 0 reposts. Asashoryu’s two posts of 10-26 had 62 and 26 on 10-29. Posting times and content of the four posts from 10-29 were checked by me on X. ↩︎

  90. Grok’s count at 22:00 on 2026-10-30. The hourly data from the 23:00 hour of 10-23 on were pulled again; over the 143 hours that overlap the version through the 21:00 hour of 10-29 the total is 15 lower, with 11 hours each 1 to 3 lower and no hour changing by more than 1%. With the last two hours added, 10-29 comes to 11,493 posts, 10,952 of them reposts. New reposts between 00:00 and 22:00 on 10-30: @sxzBST, 10-29 10:24 1,445; @takaichi_sanae, 10-29 15:27 963; @cobta (藤井セイラ), 10-30 00:19 924, quoting @PressSec_JP (内閣広報官), 10-29 20:31; @GrwaNnKqMn5nG68 (湯浅忠雄 YUASA TADAO), 10-29 10:14 440; @chiakisakamoto (坂本千明), 10-29 21:06 364; sixth was @qqOoUmYgbI80868, 10-29 17:59 with 266. Candidates came from one page of reposts in each of 7 hours, the first page of the day’s original posts, the top 6 of 10-29, and the posts of KDDI’s PR account and Asashoryu; among the other candidates @turningpointjpn had 213, @masaki_kito 208 and @PressSec_JP 168. Takaichi’s post had 3,021 new reposts over the whole of 10-29. Asashoryu’s two posts of 10-26 had 23 (13:12) and 241 (13:21) on 10-30. The posting times and content of the posts by Fujii Seira, Sakamoto Chiaki and the Cabinet Public Relations Secretary were checked by me on X. ↩︎

  91. Grok’s count at 00:00 on 2026-11-01. The hourly data from the 01:00 hour of 10-25 on were pulled again; over the 141 hours that overlap the version through the 21:00 hour of 10-30 the total is 7 lower, with 5 hours each 1 to 3 lower; only the 21:00 hour of 10-30 changed by more than 1% (195 to 192). 10-29 therefore comes to 11,491 posts, 10,950 of them reposts; with the last two hours added, 10-30 comes to 6,621, 6,282 of them reposts. New reposts on 10-31: @sxzBST, 10-29 10:24 299; @takaichi_sanae, 10-29 15:27 188; @masaki_kito (紀藤正樹), 10-30 12:19 86; @cobta (藤井セイラ), 10-30 00:19 64; @GW3CjJsMQ6n2ye1 (田中 健二), 10-30 16:28 61; sixth was @oosakahaoosaka, 10-30 23:14 with 54, sharing the same Josei Jishin report. Asashoryu’s two posts of 10-26 had 7 (13:12) and 81 (13:21) on 10-31. Candidates came from one page of reposts in each of 6 hours, the first page of the day’s original posts, the top 6 of 10-30, and the posts of KDDI’s PR account and Asashoryu; the other posts in the top 6 of 10-30 had, on 10-31, 14 (@qqOoUmYgbI80868), 9 (@chiakisakamoto) and 2 (@GrwaNnKqMn5nG68). Over the whole of 10-30, Takaichi’s post had 993 new reposts and Fujii Seira’s 973. The posting times and content of the posts by Kito Masaki, Tanaka Kenji and @oosakahaoosaka were checked by me on X. ↩︎

  92. Grok’s count at 23:00 on 2026-11-03. The hourly data from the 00:00 hour of 10-28 on were pulled again; over the 96 hours that overlap the version through the 23:00 hour of 10-31 the total is 2 lower, with only the 10:00 and 14:00 hours of 10-31 each 1 lower, which on such small counts is more than 1%. 10-31 therefore comes to 1,411 posts, 1,286 of them reposts. New reposts on 11-01: @hideinu (hideko Wada), 11-01 09:16 59; @tomko_5 (日向端トム子), 10-31 14:08 29; @sxzBST, 10-29 10:24 20; @funakoshi_ta (冨名腰隆), 10-31 20:59 16; @takaichi_sanae, 10-29 15:27 9. On 11-02: @Eri_q_frog, 11-02 14:55 70; @nageune31, 11-02 09:38 63; the @hideinu post 33; @CgtnJapanese, 11-01 22:37 23; fifth was @GGBB_GGBB_GGBB at 20:06 on 11-02, with 8. On 11-03, 00:00 to 23:00: @yuyawatase (渡瀬裕哉), 11-03 19:09 79; @watanuki1989 (渡貫賢介), 11-03 16:48 44; @128bp (椀33), 11-02 21:55 37; @sansanegaode55, 11-03 10:33 32; @RCB_QAJF_991199, 11-03 00:28 31. Candidates came from one page of reposts (25) in each of 2 or 3 time slots per day, the first page of the day’s original posts, the top 6 of 10-31, and the KDDI PR and Asashoryu posts, 27 posts in all, each counted individually; the sample covers about a fifth of each day’s reposts, so posts around fifth place on 11-01 and 11-02 may have been missed. Prime Minister Takaichi’s post had 9, 7 and 3 new reposts on the three days; Asashoryu’s two posts of 10-26 had 4 between them; KDDI’s PR post had none on any of the three days, 9,300 in total. The posting times and contents of the posts above were checked by me on X. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  93. Б.Ганчимэг, Мэнэнгийн их тал минь… миний гунигийг ч бас аваад үлдээрэй, Analiz.mn from DNN.mn, 2026-10-20 10:41. ↩︎

  94. Grok’s count at 10:00 on 2026-11-06. The hourly data from the 10:00 hour of 10-30 on were pulled again; over the 109 hours that overlap the version through the 22:00 hour of 11-03 the total is 2 lower, with only 11-03 07:00 (20 → 19) and 21:00 (43 → 42) changing, each by more than 1% because the numbers are small. With the 23:00 hour added, 11-03 is 463 posts, 411 of them reposts. Through the 09:00 hour of 11-06 the total since 10-06 is 505,258, of which 483,872 are reposts. New reposts on 11-04: @yuyawatase (Watase Yuya), 11-03 19:09, 77; @RCB_QAJF_991199, 11-04 14:04, 14; @watanuki1989 (Watanuki Kensuke), 11-03 16:48, 13; @128bp (椀33), 11-02 21:55, 11; @RCB_QAJF_991199, 11-03 00:28, 10. On 11-05: @RCB_QAJF_991199’s of 11-03, 26; @Eri_q_frog, 11-02 14:55, 10; @RCB_QAJF_991199’s of 11-04, 10; @128bp’s, 9; @Eri_q_frog’s older post, 8. On 11-06, 00:00 to 09:00: @Eri_q_frog’s older post, 3; @RCB_QAJF_991199’s of 11-03, 2; all others 1. Grok gives the older post’s time as 10-19 16:43; the post with this text that I saw on X is dated 10-18 16:13, and I have not confirmed they are the same. Candidates came from one page of reposts (about 25) from each of 4 periods on 11-04, 3 on 11-05 and 1 on 11-06, one page of original posts per day and a fixed list, 29 posts counted one by one, about 77%, 80% and 68% of the day’s reposts; from third place on the morning of 11-06 most have 1, and some may be missed. Prime Minister Takaichi’s post had 1 on each of the 3 days; Asashoryu’s two posts of 10-26 had 0; the KDDI PR post had 0, with 9,300 in total on the counts endpoint, while Grok reads 11,995 reposts on the post’s page, a difference I have not checked. I read the RCB post of 11-04 and the @Eri_q_frog older post on X; the others rest on earlier checks or Grok’s summary. ↩︎ ↩︎

  95. Global Times commentary, 中蒙边境的这场大火，涉案日企也该向中国道歉 (republished by ifeng.com), 2026-10-21 17:47 Beijing time. See also South China Morning Post, Chinese state media takes aim at Japanese firm KDDI over Mongolia wildfire, 2026-10-23 10:57 HKT, Liu Zhen. ↩︎

  96. Changanjie Zhishi (Beijing Daily), 大火逼近中国，日本道歉岂能只道一半, 2026-10-22 17:43 Beijing time, by Jing Ping. ↩︎

  97. Xinhuanet, 日企承认烧到中蒙边境的蒙古国大火是其高管活动引发, 2026-10-21 23:46 Beijing time, Qian Zheng, Ha Lina, Peng Yuan and Lian Zhen. ↩︎