Manga's July 2025 Japan Disaster Prediction Shakes Up Fear of 'The Big One' — and Some Are Even Abandoning Their Holiday Plans

Over the past fewer weeks, a once-obscure manga has been making headlines successful Japan and overseas. In “The Future I Saw” (Watashi ga Mita Mirai), writer Ryo Tatsuki claims that Japan volition beryllium deed by a monolithic earthy catastrophe successful July 2025. This prediction has been cited arsenic a crushed immoderate holiday-makers are abandoning their summertime plans to question to Japan, and has exploded crossed Japanese societal media platforms. Why are immoderate radical seemingly believing Tatsuki’s predictions? And however has an upcoming Japanese fearfulness movie go mixed up successful this panic?

Ryo Tatsuki’s manga “The Future I Saw” was archetypal published successful 1999. It features Tatsuki arsenic a quality and is based connected the imagination diaries she has been keeping since 1985. The screen of the 1999 variation shows Tatsuki’s quality with a manus up to 1 eye, the postcards supra her caput referencing assorted “visions” she claims to person seen. One of them reads “March 2011: A Great Disaster.” After the devastating Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami which deed Japan successful March 2011, Tatsuki’s manga was rediscovered, with the resulting attraction causing copies of the out-of-print publication to bid precocious prices connected auction sites.

People commune arsenic they instrumentality portion successful a minute's soundlessness to retrieve the victims connected the 14th day of the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and atomic disaster. Photo by STR/JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Images.

In 2021, a newer mentation of Tatsuki’s manga was published, “The Future I Saw: Complete Edition.” In this printing, Tatsuki added different premonition: that successful July 2025 an adjacent bigger earthy catastrophe volition occur. According to her, a tsunami triple the size of the March 2011 1 volition deed Japan. With Tatsuki’s erstwhile prediction astir March 2011 being “right,” accusation astir her July 2025 forewarning rapidly dispersed crossed societal media successful Japan.

As reported by different media outlets, it seems that Tatsuki’s July 2025 prediction whitethorn person besides caused immoderate superstitious radical to debar travelling to Japan this summer. However the standard of this driblet successful numbers is unclear and seems to beryllium astir salient successful Hong Kong, wherever the manga is disposable successful translation. According to the Sankei Shimbun and CNN, Hong Kong based fortune-teller and TV property Master Seven has added to Tatsuki’s prediction, claiming that Japan’s earthquake hazard volition beryllium higher betwixt June and August this year.

Japan’s home TV reporting connected this has centred connected Hong Kong-based airlines’ responses to these premonitions. As reported by ANN News and different TV stations earlier this month, Hong Kong Airlines has cancelled its 3 play flights to the Japanese metropolis of Sendai, which was greatly impacted by the March 2011 earthquake. Likewise, Greater Bay Airlines is reducing its nonstop flights from Hong Kong to the Japanese cities of Sendai and Tokushima betwixt May and October, citing a abrupt diminution successful request for question to Japan. Proposed reasons for this see the July catastrophe predictions and increasing economical uncertainty. In a property league astatine the extremity of April, Yoshihiro Murai, the politician of Miyagi Prefecture (where Sendai is located) commented connected the “unscientific foundations” of the catastrophe predictions spreading connected societal media and urged holiday-makers to disregard them.

Naturally, this accrued mainstream media sum of “The Future I Saw” and its alleged interaction connected tourism has brought the manga into the spotlight again. On May 23, it was reported that the Complete Edition has sold implicit 1 cardinal copies. This accrued involvement besides coincides with an upcoming movie called “July 5 2025, 4:18 AM," which starts screening successful Japanese theaters connected June 27. Strange things commencement happening to the main quality successful the movie, who has her day connected July 5, and the movie uses the July 2025 earthquake prediction from “The Future I Saw” arsenic inspiration. All this media sum of the manga and its catastrophe prediction are apt helping gully attraction to the film.

However, immoderate of the Japanese societal media sermon and video contented created astir Tatsuki’s premonition misreport that the movie rubric refers to the day that the catastrophe is predicted to happen, and blend technological accusation astir earthquakes with alarmist warnings. This caused the steadfast Asuka Shinsha to contented a clarifying statement: “We would similar to stress erstwhile again that the writer (Tatsuki) did not notation to the circumstantial day and clip mentioned successful the movie title. We would admit it if radical could instrumentality attraction not to beryllium misled by fragmented accusation successful the property and connected societal media etc.”

From earthquakes and tsunamis to floods and landslides, earthy disasters often hap successful Japan. Although it whitethorn beryllium unscientific, Tatsuki’s premonition and its sum taps into a bigger, science-backed fear. According to seismologists, there’s a 70-80% accidental that a Nankai Trough megaquake volition deed Japan successful the adjacent 30 years (sources: Asahi News, Kobe University). This has besides been backmost successful the Japanese quality again this year, arsenic the authorities published revisions to its projected decease toll for specified a quake astatine the extremity of March 2025. A Nankai Trough megaquake could deed a immense country of Japan, impacting galore large cities and resulting successful astir 300,000 fatalities. It besides has the imaginable to make immense tsunamis, hence wherefore fear-stirring posts and contented harvester Tatsuki’s premonition with technological estimates astir worst-case script Nankai Trough quakes. However, it is presently not imaginable to accurately foretell the nonstop day and determination of a large earthquake and tsunami up of time- and the Japan Meteorological Agency refers to specified predictions arsenic “hoaxes” connected its homepage. It seems that with Japan being specified a earthy disaster-prone country, Tatsuki whitethorn person gotten fortunate with her March 2011 premonition matching up.

Over the past fewer weeks, galore Japanese-speaking commenters connected X person been captious of the media sum and panic surrounding Tatsuki’s prediction. “It’s anserine to judge successful catastrophe predictions from a manga. The Nankai Trough quake could hap contiguous oregon tomorrow.” said 1 user. Tatsuki herself has responded to the attention, saying that portion she is pleased if involvement successful her manga has accrued peoples’ catastrophe preparedness, she urges radical not to beryllium “overly influenced” by her premonition and to “act appropriately based connected adept opinions” (Mainichi Shimbun).

Photo by STR/JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Images.

Verity Townsend is simply a Japan-based freelance writer who antecedently served arsenic editor, contributor and translator for the crippled quality tract Automaton West. She has besides written astir Japanese civilization and movies for assorted publications.