A Japanese comic book's prediction of a “real catastrophe” has sparked fear and cancellations from travellers.
According to CNN, it might sound fictional, but the Japanese tourism industry suffers after travellers cancel their trip due to the prediction of mass destruction by a feng shui master in the comic book.
Seismologists have long warned that it is nearly impossible to predict earthquakes; however, superstitious travellers, particularly from East Asia, have called off holidays amid predictions despite Japan’s impressive record of withstanding even powerful tremors and major quakes.
What did the ‘big one’ prediction say?
A comic book, The Future I Saw, published by manga artist Ryo Tatsuki in 1999, warned of a major disaster in March 2011 that surprisingly came true with a massive earthquake in the Tohoku region that month.
The “complete version,” which was released in 2021, has also predicted the next big earthquake this July, and at the same time, psychics from Hong Kong and Japan have also issued similar warnings.
CN Yuen, managing director of WWPKG, a travel agency based in Hong Kong, revealed that the number of travellers to Japan dropped by half during the Easter holiday and is expected to decline further in the next two months as “people just say they want to hold off their trip for now.”
Notably, Japan is no stranger to strong earthquakes, as it lies in an area of intense seismic and volcanic activity, the Ring of Fire, on both sides of the Pacific Ocean. The fear of the “big one” has been increasing since the government warned in January that there was an 80% chance of a severe earthquake hitting the country’s southern Nankai Trough within 30 years.
