Japan has seen a dip in tourists from mainland China, Hong Kong, and other East Asian nations over a rash of apocalyptic earthquake predictions.
Driving the news: A manga by Ryo Tatsuki called The Future I Saw prophesied that a huge earthquake would strike Japan in July. This has scared off some would-be visitors to Japan because Tatsuki, who claims to receive visions of the future, has been eerily right in the past.
- In the manga, which was inspired by Tatsuki’s visions, she predicted that a “massive disaster” would hit Japan in March 2011 — this just so happened to be the month of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that resulted in the Fukushima nuclear accident.
- Others have joined in on the frightening predictions, including a Japanese psychic on Chinese social media and a popular Hong Kong feng shui master and TV host.
Why it matters: These predictions might be pure hokum, but the threat of a catastrophic quake isn’t. An 8-to-9-magnitude quake in Japan’s Nankai Trough is much anticipated. In fact, the Japanese government warned there’s about an 80% chance it will happen in the next 30 years.
- Earlier this year, a government report estimated that a 9-magnitude quake in the region could result in 300,000 deaths and losses of US$1.8 trillion.
Bottom line: This saga isn’t likely to put a real dent into Japanese tourism, which has had a record year thus far. If a massive earthquake actually does happen in July, though…—QH