"Manga's 2025 Japan Disaster Prediction Causes Holiday Plan Cancellations"

Over the past few weeks, a once-obscure manga, "The Future I Saw" (Watashi ga Mita Mirai), authored by Ryo Tatsuki, has captured headlines in Japan and beyond. Tatsuki's work, which includes a prediction of a massive natural disaster striking Japan in July 2025, has led to some holiday-makers canceling their summer plans to visit the country. This prediction has rapidly spread across Japanese social media, raising questions about why some individuals are taking Tatsuki's claims seriously and how an upcoming Japanese horror movie has become entangled in this widespread concern.

Originally published in 1999, "The Future I Saw" features Tatsuki as a character and draws from her dream diaries, which she began keeping in 1985. The 1999 edition's cover illustrates Tatsuki's character with a hand over one eye, surrounded by postcards depicting her visions, one of which references a "Great Disaster" in March 2011. Following the tragic Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami in March 2011, Tatsuki's manga gained renewed attention, with out-of-print copies fetching high prices on auction sites.

People pray as they take part in a minute's silence to remember the victims on the 14th anniversary of the 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster. Photo by STR/JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Images.

In 2021, Tatsuki released an updated version titled "The Future I Saw: Complete Edition," where she added a new prediction: a tsunami three times the size of the 2011 disaster would strike Japan in July 2025. Given the apparent accuracy of her previous prediction, news of this new forecast quickly spread across social media platforms in Japan.

Reports suggest that Tatsuki's prediction for July 2025 has influenced some superstitious travelers, particularly in Hong Kong where the manga is available in translation, to reconsider their plans to visit Japan this summer. The exact impact on travel numbers remains unclear, but the situation has been exacerbated by Hong Kong-based fortune-teller and TV personality Master Seven, who claims that Japan's earthquake risk will peak between June and August of this year.

Japanese domestic media has focused on the responses of Hong Kong-based airlines to these predictions. Hong Kong Airlines canceled its three weekly flights to Sendai, a city severely affected by the 2011 earthquake, while Greater Bay Airlines reduced direct flights to Sendai and Tokushima from May to October, citing a decline in demand. This drop in demand has been attributed to the disaster predictions and broader economic uncertainty. In late April, Miyagi Prefecture Governor Yoshihiro Murai criticized the unscientific basis of these predictions during a press conference and encouraged tourists to disregard them.

The increased media attention on "The Future I Saw" has led to a resurgence in its popularity, with the Complete Edition selling over 1 million copies as reported on May 23. This renewed interest aligns with the release of a new Japanese horror movie titled "July 5 2025, 4:18 AM," set to premiere on June 27. The film, inspired by Tatsuki's July 2025 earthquake prediction, follows a protagonist whose birthday coincides with the predicted disaster date. The extensive media coverage of the manga and its predictions is likely contributing to the film's buzz.

However, some social media content and video posts have incorrectly linked the movie's title to the exact date of the predicted disaster, mixing scientific earthquake data with alarmist rhetoric. This led Asuka Shinsha, the publisher, to issue a statement clarifying that Tatsuki did not specify the date and time mentioned in the movie title and urged the public not to be misled by fragmented information.

Japan frequently faces natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, and landslides. While Tatsuki's predictions may lack scientific backing, they resonate with broader, evidence-based fears. Seismologists estimate a 70-80% chance of a Nankai Trough megaquake hitting Japan within the next 30 years, which could affect major cities and result in approximately 300,000 fatalities, along with massive tsunamis. The Japanese government recently updated its projected death toll for such a quake, bringing these concerns back into the public eye. However, the Japan Meteorological Agency labels such specific predictions as "hoaxes" on its homepage, emphasizing the impossibility of accurately predicting the exact timing and location of major earthquakes and tsunamis.

In recent weeks, many Japanese-speaking users on X have criticized the media frenzy and panic surrounding Tatsuki's predictions. One user remarked, "It's stupid to believe in disaster predictions from a manga. The Nankai Trough quake could happen today or tomorrow." Tatsuki herself has addressed the attention, expressing satisfaction if her manga has increased disaster preparedness, but she cautions against being "overly influenced" by her premonition and advises people to follow expert opinions.