Over the previous few weeks, a once-obscure manga has been making headlines in Japan and abroad. In “The Future I Noticed” (Watashi ga Mita Mirai), writer Ryo Tatsuki claims that Japan might be hit by a large pure catastrophe in July 2025. This prediction has been cited as a cause some holiday-makers are abandoning their summer time plans to journey to Japan, and has exploded throughout Japanese social media platforms. Why are some individuals apparently believing Tatsuki’s predictions? And the way has an upcoming Japanese horror film change into combined up on this panic?
Ryo Tatsuki’s manga “The Future I Noticed” was first revealed in 1999. It options Tatsuki as a personality and relies on the dream diaries she has been holding since 1985. The quilt of the 1999 version reveals Tatsuki’s character with a hand as much as one eye, the postcards above her head referencing varied “visions” she claims to have seen. One among them reads “March 2011: A Nice Catastrophe.” After the devastating Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami which hit Japan in March 2011, Tatsuki’s manga was rediscovered, with the ensuing consideration inflicting copies of the out-of-print e book to command excessive costs on public sale websites.
In 2021, a more recent model of Tatsuki’s manga was revealed, “The Future I Noticed: Full Version.” On this printing, Tatsuki added one other premonition: that in July 2025 an excellent greater pure catastrophe will happen. In keeping with her, a tsunami triple the scale of the March 2011 one will hit Japan. With Tatsuki’s earlier prediction about March 2011 being “proper,” details about her July 2025 forewarning rapidly unfold throughout social media in Japan.
As reported by different media retailers, evidently Tatsuki’s July 2025 prediction might have additionally brought on some superstitious individuals to keep away from travelling to Japan this summer time. Nevertheless the size of this drop in numbers is unclear and appears to be most outstanding in Hong Kong, the place the manga is obtainable in translation. In keeping with the Sankei Shimbun and CNN, Hong Kong based mostly fortune-teller and TV persona Grasp Seven has added to Tatsuki’s prediction, claiming that Japan’s earthquake threat might be greater between June and August this 12 months.
Japan’s home TV reporting on this has centred on Hong Kong-based airways’ responses to those premonitions. As reported by ANN Information and different TV stations earlier this month, Hong Kong Airways has cancelled its three weekly flights to the Japanese metropolis of Sendai, which was enormously impacted by the March 2011 earthquake. Likewise, Higher Bay Airways is lowering its direct flights from Hong Kong to the Japanese cities of Sendai and Tokushima between Might and October, citing a sudden decline in demand for journey to Japan. Proposed causes for this embrace the July catastrophe predictions and rising financial uncertainty. In a press convention on the finish of April, Yoshihiro Murai, the governor of Miyagi Prefecture (the place Sendai is positioned) commented on the “unscientific foundations” of the catastrophe predictions spreading on social media and urged holiday-makers to disregard them.
Naturally, this elevated mainstream media protection of “The Future I Noticed” and its alleged influence on tourism has introduced the manga into the highlight once more. On Might 23, it was reported that the Full Version has bought over 1 million copies. This elevated curiosity additionally coincides with an upcoming film known as “July 5 2025, 4:18 AM,” which begins screening in Japanese theaters on June 27. Unusual issues begin taking place to the primary character within the film, who has her birthday on July 5, and the movie makes use of the July 2025 earthquake prediction from “The Future I Noticed” as inspiration. All this media protection of the manga and its catastrophe prediction are seemingly serving to draw consideration to the movie.
Nevertheless, a number of the Japanese social media discourse and video content material created about Tatsuki’s premonition misreport that the film title refers back to the date that the catastrophe is predicted to occur, and mix scientific details about earthquakes with alarmist warnings. This brought on the writer Asuka Shinsha to subject a clarifying assertion: “We want to emphasize as soon as once more that the writer (Tatsuki) didn’t consult with the particular date and time talked about within the film title. We might recognize it if individuals may take care to not be misled by fragmented data within the press and on social media and so forth.”
From earthquakes and tsunamis to floods and landslides, pure disasters regularly happen in Japan. Though it could be unscientific, Tatsuki’s premonition and its protection faucets into a much bigger, science-backed concern. In keeping with seismologists, there’s a 70-80% probability {that a} Nankai Trough megaquake will hit Japan within the subsequent 30 years (sources: Asahi Information, Kobe College). This has additionally been again within the Japanese information once more this 12 months, as the federal government revealed revisions to its projected dying toll for such a quake on the finish of March 2025. A Nankai Trough megaquake may hit an enormous space of Japan, impacting many main cities and leading to round 300,000 fatalities. It additionally has the potential to generate enormous tsunamis, therefore why fear-stirring posts and content material mix Tatsuki’s premonition with scientific estimates about worst-case state of affairs Nankai Trough quakes. Nevertheless, it’s at the moment not attainable to precisely predict the precise date and placement of a serious earthquake and tsunami forward of time- and the Japan Meteorological Company refers to such predictions as “hoaxes” on its homepage. Evidently with Japan being such a pure disaster-prone nation, Tatsuki might have gotten fortunate along with her March 2011 premonition matching up.
Over the previous few weeks, many Japanese-speaking commenters on X have been crucial of the media protection and panic surrounding Tatsuki’s prediction. “It’s silly to consider in catastrophe predictions from a manga. The Nankai Trough quake may occur at the moment or tomorrow.” stated one person. Tatsuki herself has responded to the eye, saying that whereas she is happy if curiosity in her manga has elevated peoples’ catastrophe preparedness, she urges individuals to not be “overly influenced” by her premonition and to “act appropriately based mostly on skilled opinions” (Mainichi Shimbun).
Picture by STR/JIJI PRESS/AFP through Getty Photographs.
Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance author who beforehand served as editor, contributor and translator for the sport information website Automaton West. She has additionally written about Japanese tradition and flicks for varied publications.
