TOKYO - An earthquake that rocked remote islands in southwestern Japan on Saturday morning was not connected to a manga author's disaster prediction that went viral on social media, the country's weather agency said.
According to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), the quake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.4 struck off the Tokara island chain in Kagoshima prefecture at 6:29 am local time, as a series of temblors in the area prompted residents to evacuate.
"It is absolutely a coincidence. There is no causal connection," Ayataka Ebita, director of the earthquake and tsunami observation division of the JMA, told a press conference later in the day.
The explanation comes amid widespread fears fueled by a prediction made in the 2021 reprint of The Future I Saw, a manga authored by Japanese artist Ryo Tatsuki, that Japan will be hit by a major disaster in July, specifically on Saturday, July 5.
In June, Tatsuki scaled back her prediction about the megaquake, denying the specific date of the disaster, but it seemed to have failed to stop the spread of panic and concern in Japan and beyond.
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Tatsuki gained a profile after the manga's first edition published in 1999 mentioned a "major calamity" in March 2011, which coincided with a catastrophic quake-tsunami that struck Japan's northeast and led to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident.
Ebita said current science is unable to predict earthquakes accurately, and any that appear to fit the manga's prediction are purely coincidental.
Seismic activities have been increasing in the Tokara island chain region. On Sunday, an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.4 struck off the island chain as more people evacuated from the area.
The quake, which occurred at 2:07 pm local time, measured upper 5 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 on Akusekijima, part of the Tokara island chain, said the JMA.
The weather agency said the temblor originated at a depth of 20 km, but there is no threat of a tsunami.
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The number of felt quakes detected in the Tokara island chain area has exceeded 1,300 since June 21. Evacuation of islanders began after a quake with a magnitude of 5.5 that measured lower 6 of the Japanese scale was logged on Thursday, Kyodo News reported.
On Sunday morning, a total of 46 residents of Akusekijima and Kodakarajima in the Tokara island chain boarded a ferry, the second batch of evacuees to leave for Kagoshima city on the closest main island of Kyushu, following 13 residents of Akusekijima who evacuated on Friday, the report said.
