Will a 'mega-quake' strike next week after Japanese manga predicts 'disaster'?

Metro

20 hours ago

World War Three, a nuclear conflict and a weather event supercharged by climate change are just some catastrophes humanity could one day face.
And that calamity is sooner than you'd think, at least, according to a reprint of an old Japanese manga.
Ryo Tatsuki, Japan's answer to Nostradamus, wrote down 15 dreams she had in the 1990s, many of which would come true.
They were published in a 1999 manga called Watashi ga Mita Mira, known as The Future I Saw in English.
A complete edition was published in 2021 and featured a 'new prophecy' that a 'great disaster' will strike Japan on July 5, 2025.
Tatsuki, 70, wrote in her diary that she had dreamed of a 'crack opening up under the seabed between Japan and the Philippines, sending ashore waves three times as tall as those from the Tōhoku earthquake'.
She watched as the seas 'boiled', almost as if she was looking at the world as on Google Earth. Tatsuki had this dream while travelling in India before experiencing it again at 4.18am on July 5, 2021.
The foreword from states: 'The disaster will occur in July 2025.'
In the afterword, Tatsuki added: 'If the day you have a dream is the day it becomes reality, then the next great disaster will be July 5, 2025.'
Yet in a new autobiography, The Testament of an Angel, Tatsuki said next week's omen may have been a misprint on the publisher's side.
'I was unhappy that it was published primarily based on the publisher's wishes,' she said, according to The Sankei Shimbun.
'I vaguely remember mentioning it, but it appears to have been hurriedly written during a rush of work.'
Tatsuki stressed that July 5 was the date she had her dream in 2021, and that the editorial staff may have misinterpreted what she said.
She added: 'The day I had the dream does not equal the day something happens.'
The author told the Japanese newspaper that she appreciates the high interest people have in The Future I Know.
'It is evidence of growing awareness of disaster prevention, and we view this as a positive thing,' she said.
'We would like to be of some help in the event of a disaster, and hope that this interest will lead to safety measures and preparations.
'I myself have to be especially careful when I go out, and I also try to stock up on supplies in case of a disaster.'
The Future I Saw is composed of 15 dreams that Tatsuki had in 1985 when her mother gifted her a notebook.
The cover shows pages from her 'dream diary'. 'Boom!' one reads, depicting the once 'beautiful' Mount Fuji erupting as storm clouds gather.
Another has an image of Princess Diana with the words, 'The dream I saw on August 31, 1995. Diana? What is it?', while one cryptically mentions a 'death anniversary' and the date June 12, 1995.
But the most alarming among them: 'Great disaster happens March 2011.'
Some readers saw the Tōhoku earthquake in March 2011, among the strongest ever recorded in Japan, as the 'great disaster' Tatsuki dreamt of.
The 9-magnitude earthquake set off a devastating tsunami that sent towering walls of water slamming into the northern coast, killing 19,700.
Of the 15 dreams, 13 have come true, more or less, including the deaths of Diana and Queen frontman Freddie Mercury and a pandemic in 2020.
The reprint has gained cult status and been translated into Chinese, with more than one million copies sold since 2021, according to the publisher, Asuka Shinsha.
Tourism in Japan has been growing for years – in 2022, following Covid, tourism soared by 1458%. This year alone, more than 10,500,000 international tourists have visited, with nearly 3,500,000 in March.
But the unfounded July claims have scared off tourists from China and Hong Kong, fearing a long-expected 'mega-earthquake' will strike.
Airline bookings to Japan from Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea have plummeted in recent months, an analysis by Bloomberg found.
Reservations from Hong Kong fell 50% in April compared to last year, while those booked for late June to early July tumbled 86%.
Hong Kong travel agencies have said they're seeing fewer bookings because of the 'earthquake prophecy'.
Qi Xian Yu, a popular feng shui master and Hong Kong TV personality known as Master Seven, has also predicted a looming threat to Japan.
The Japan National Tourism Organization Hong Kong Office was forced to hit back at claims in May, saying: 'The widely-discussed earthquake date and location have no scientific basis.
'When deciding whether to travel, we recommend that you refer to scientific information released by public institutions.'
Experts previously told Metro that if there's one thing scientists and soothsayers have in common, it's being unable to predict earthquakes, let alone a 'mega' one.
Japan sits on four major tectonic plates, making it likely to experience tectonic activity.
Government officials say there's an 80% chance a monster tremor will happen in the next 30 years, with a death toll of 298,000. More Trending
Stewart Fishwick, professor of geophysics and Head of School at the University of Leicester, told Metro: 'Even the 80% chance in the next 30 years is at the very high end of the range of forecasts that have been made for this area – others put it at around 10-30%.'
Speaking to Metro, manga expert Andrea Horbinski: 'This manga being credited with a decrease in bookings shows the powerful role manga can play in people's imaginations.
'But while I'm sure some people are holding off on travelling to Japan due to this manga's dire predictions, I suspect the overall decrease probably has more to do with increasing global fears of an economic recession.'
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