Travellers Avoiding Japan Amid Talk of a Big Quake Prophesied in Manga Novel

Holiday bookings to Japan from key Asian markets have plunged ahead of the busy summer season.

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The cause: rumours of an impending earthquake prophesied in a manga novel.

Social media and viral posts have unsettled travellers and renewed attention on manga artist Ryo Tatsuki's prediction of a huge earthquake that would inundate Japan with tsunami waves. Tatsuki, whom some claim predicted Japan's 2011 earthquake, gives July 2025 as the date of the impending event in a graphic novel that was first published back in 1999.

The manga was republished in 2021 with additional content, and the quake speculation was given new life on social media recently, with YouTube videos and Facebook posts that warn people about travelling to Japan attracting millions of views.

Though scientists say the exact timing of earthquakes cannot be predicted, airline bookings from Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong have dropped since April, with bookings from Hong Kong plunging by an average of 50 per cent versus a year ago, according to a Bloomberg Intelligence analysis of ForwardKeys data. Weekly arrival bookings for late June to early July from the Asian financial hub have also nosedived by as much as 83 per cent.