Japan rocked by earthquakes, authorities dismiss "doomsday" hype

The Japanese government on Saturday warned of new possible strong earthquakes in the waters southwest of its main islands, but urged the public not to believe unsubstantiated predictions of a "great catastrophe," UNN reports with reference to Reuters.

Details

On Friday, authorities evacuated some residents from remote islands located near the epicenter of a magnitude 5.5 earthquake near the southernmost main island of Kyushu.

This earthquake on Thursday, strong enough to make it difficult to stand, was one of more than 1,000 tremors in the islands of Kagoshima Prefecture over the past two weeks, fueling rumors that arose from comic book predictions that a "great catastrophe" would strike the country this month.

"With our current scientific knowledge, it is difficult to predict the exact time, place or scale of an earthquake," said Ayataka Ebita, director of the Earthquake and Tsunami Monitoring Division of the Japan Meteorological Agency, after a magnitude 5.4 earthquake struck the area again on Saturday.

"We ask people to base their understanding on scientific evidence," Ebita said at a press conference.

The manga, which some interpreted as predicting a catastrophic event on Saturday, prompted some travelers to avoid Japan. According to the latest data, arrivals from Hong Kong, where rumors are widely circulating, decreased by 11% in May compared to the same month last year.

Japan has seen a record number of visitors this year, with a record monthly high of 3.9 million travelers recorded in April.

Re Tatsuki, the artist of The Future I Saw manga, first published in 1999 and reissued in 2021, stated in a statement published by her publisher that she is "not a prophet."

Addition

Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world's most seismically active regions. It accounts for about one-fifth of all earthquakes of magnitude 6 and above.