July 2025 Japan Disaster Manga Sparks Fear, Cancels Holiday Plans

Over the past few weeks, the manga "The Future I Saw" (Watashi ga Mita Mirai) by Ryo Tatsuki has surged into the spotlight both in Japan and internationally. The manga, which gained notoriety after accurately predicting the March 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami, now claims that Japan will face a massive natural disaster in July 2025. This prediction has led some to cancel their summer travel plans to Japan and has fueled widespread discussion across Japanese social media.

Tatsuki's manga, first published in 1999, is based on her dream diaries and features her as a character. The 1999 edition's cover depicts Tatsuki with a hand over one eye, surrounded by postcards that represent her visions, including one that ominously states "March 2011: A Great Disaster." Following the real-life disaster in 2011, interest in the manga spiked, leading to high auction prices for out-of-print copies.

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, "The Future I Saw: Complete Edition," where she added a new prediction of a devastating tsunami three times the size of the 2011 disaster, set to hit Japan in July 2025. Given her previous accurate prediction, this new forecast quickly spread across social media in Japan, contributing to some tourists' decisions to avoid the country during the predicted time.

The impact of Tatsuki's prediction seems most pronounced in Hong Kong, where the manga is available in translation. According to the Sankei Shimbun and CNN, local fortune-teller and TV personality Master Seven has amplified Tatsuki's warning, claiming that Japan's earthquake risk will be elevated between June and August of this year.

Japanese media has focused on the responses from 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 its direct flights to Sendai and Tokushima from May to October due to declining demand. The Miyagi Prefecture governor, Yoshihiro Murai, criticized these predictions as "unscientific" during a press conference, urging tourists to disregard them.

The heightened media attention has not only boosted sales of "The Future I Saw," with the Complete Edition selling over 1 million copies by May 23, but also coincided with the release of a new horror movie, "July 5 2025, 4:18 AM," set to premiere on June 27. The film, inspired by Tatsuki's prediction, follows a protagonist whose birthday is on July 5 and experiences strange occurrences. The movie's title has been mistakenly linked by some social media users and content creators to the exact date and time of the predicted disaster, leading to confusion and alarmist posts.

Asuka Shinsha, the manga's publisher, issued a statement clarifying that Tatsuki did not specify the exact date and time mentioned in the movie title, urging the public not to be misled by fragmented information.

Japan's vulnerability to natural disasters, including earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, and landslides, makes such predictions particularly resonant. Seismologists estimate a 70-80% chance of a Nankai Trough megaquake occurring within the next 30 years, a fear that recent government projections have rekindled. Despite these scientific concerns, the Japan Meteorological Agency labels specific earthquake predictions as "hoaxes."

Amidst the media frenzy and public panic, many Japanese-speaking users on X have criticized the attention given to Tatsuki's predictions. Tatsuki herself has responded, expressing satisfaction if her work has increased disaster preparedness but cautioning against being "overly influenced" by her premonitions and advocating for reliance on expert opinions.