[Image: OpenClipArt]
This might sound like the plot of a disaster movie, but a recent spate of so-called catastrophic “predictions” has led to superstitious travellers, particularly in East Asia, cancelling or delaying their holidays to Japan.
While seismologists have warned that accurately predicting when an earthquake might strike is all but impossible, it seems quite many tourists have decided to head the predictions made by a Japanese comic book that warns of a “real catastrophe,” a psychic predicting “mass destruction,” and a well-known feng shui master who is now urging people to stay away.
While soothsayers and social media have added to the hysteria, most people who have chosen to stay away from the island nation are referencing a manga comic book by artist Ryo Tatsuki published in 1999.
The Future I Saw warned of a major disaster in March 2011, which turned out to coincide with the cataclysmic quake that struck Japan’s northern Tohoku region that month. The “complete version” of the comic was, however, released in 2021, and claims that the next big earthquake will hit this July.
[Image: Uno Japano / Facebook]
At the same time, psychics from Japan and Hong Kong have shared similar warnings, triggering a paranoia that has led to the cancellation of travel plans to the region.
The speculations have scared off mostly travellers from China and Hong Kong, which are Japan’s second and fourth-largest sources of tourists. But the fear has now also spread to other tourists in Thailand and Vietnam, where social media platforms are exploding with posts and videos warning people to think twice before taking a trip to Japan.
Ryo Tatsuki’s work has a huge following in East Asia, with her fans often believing she can accurately see future events in her dreams. The manga artist draws a cartoon version of herself in the comics, where she shares her visions. It might sound kooky, but some of her dreams turn out to bear a close resemblance to real-life events.
CNN reports that while critics say her visions are too vague to be taken seriously, her 2011 quake ‘prediction’ made Tatsuki famous not just in Japan but also in other parts of Asia, like Thailand and China. The manga’s cover bears the words “massive disaster in March 2011,” leading many to believe that she predicted the 9.0-magnitude earthquake more than a decade before it hit.
Fans believed she also predicted the deaths of Princess Diana and singer Freddie Mercury, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to the comic book selling 900,000 copies.
In the latest edition, The Future I Saw, Tatsuki warned that on July 5 this year, a crack will open up under the seabed between Japan and the Philippines, sending ashore waves three times as tall as those from the Tohoku earthquake.
The author was recently asked what she thought about the cancelled trips resulting from readers’ interpretations of her book, with Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun reporting last week that while she viewed it “very positively” that interest in her work has made people more prepared for disasters, she urged them not to be “overly swayed” by her dreams and “act appropriately based on expert opinions.”
Let’s hope her comic book is wrong.
[Source: CNN]
AloJapan.com