4 days ago
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Will There Be a Giant Natural Disaster in Japan This July?
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Travelers from across Asia are canceling trips to Japan after a comic book by manga-profit Ryo Tatsuki warned of a natural disaster in July 2025. Tatsuki predicts a massive tsunami will strike in early July—and her track record has people spooked. She previously 'predicted' both the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami and the outbreak of a pandemic in April 2020, years before either occurred.
In 2021, manga artist Ryo Tatsuki had a disturbing dream. She watched from above as the ocean floor between Japan and the Philippines cracked open and rose to the surface, sending massive waves to Japan. She says she saw text flash across a black screen, movie-style.
'The real catastrophe will come on July 5, 2025.'
Tatsuki's cult-favorite comic series, The Future I Saw was published in 1999, chronicling her prophetic dreams. Some of her predictions had already occurred at the time of publishing, like the death of Freddie Mercury and the 1995 Kobe Earthquake. However, the manga truly built a following after she accurately predicted the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. Her fame surged again in 2020 when fans noticed that the manga had also included a reference to a global pandemic that would begin in April 2020. Cover of The Future I Saw by Ryo Tatsuki (1999 version) The cover reads: 'Great disaster in March 2011' (published 1999)
With each event that seemed to line up with her dreams, her reputation grew. Social media creators and news outlets began referring to her as 'Japan's Baba Vanga,' likening her to the Bulgarian mystic known for her apocalyptic predictions.
The comic was also recently re-released as The Future I Saw: The Complete Version . The edition has already sold over 700,000 copies in Japan alone. It compiles her original dreams alongside her most chilling one yet: her vision of a giant tsunami hitting Japan in July 2025. The implication is clear: she was right before, so what if she's right again?
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And while it's easy to laugh it off, these kinds of stories strike a chord. Earthquakes in Japan aren't hypothetical. Everyone here has a memory of a big one. Everyone has a go-bag packed. So when a manga taps into that fear, it doesn't take much for it to go viral.
Travel agencies across Asia are reporting a surprising drop in bookings to Japan, and they're pointing fingers at the comic.
The steepest drops are coming from Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea—the places where the prediction seems to have caught the most attention.
According to The Guardian, citing Bloomberg Intelligence and ForwardKeys data, average bookings from Hong Kong are down 50% compared to last year. And for late June to early July, right when the so-called disaster is supposed to hit, bookings have fallen by as much as 83%. Meanwhile, Greater Bay Airlines and Hong Kong Airlines are cutting down on their Japan-bound flights.
Of course, Japan's Meteorological Agency has made it clear: there's no scientific way to predict an earthquake this far in advance. In fact, there's still no reliable method to predict one, even a few minutes before it strikes.
Tatsuya Honjo, head of the Association for Skeptical Investigation of the Supernatural (ASIOS), has publicly pushed back on Tatsuki's reputation as a seer. He points out that many of her earlier predictions never came true—and that her correct ones could just be lucky guesses. The cover of her first manga even listed dates like July 2, 1994 and November 26, 1995, which passed without incident.
Even Tatsuki herself admits to Bunshun Online in an interview, 'To be honest, I can't say for sure what this dream really meant. I've always been the type who wants to understand the cause behind things, so I don't feel entirely convinced myself. That said, after what happened with the Great East Japan Earthquake, I also can't say with 100% certainty that something won't happen.'
As Honjo comments, when a prediction appears to align with a real event—like March 11, 2011—people remember that one, not the duds.
You could argue this story went viral because it hit a generation raised on earthquakes, media sensationalism and social media anxiety.
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But also, it's just a good story. It has suspense, visuals and a message of redemption—because in her dreams, the disaster isn't the end. According to Tatsuki, the world changes after July 2025. In a dream she had on January 1, 2001, she saw a bright future where people cooperate and connect more deeply. An 'age of mind,' she calls it.
If that sounds like new-age fluff, you're not wrong. But in an era when hope feels harder to come by, it's part of the appeal.
Short answer: There's no scientific research to say that you should.
Japan remains one of the safest countries in the world to visit, with a robust disaster-response system and some of the most earthquake-resistant architecture globally. Japan's natural disaster experts and scientists have warned of no particular event to watch out for in July.
If you're planning a trip, at any time, the best thing you can always do is prepare well.
We've put together a few guides to help. Start with Earthquake and Tsunami Preparedness in Tokyo: Evacuation Tips and Access Guides. And if you're packing, don't miss our Emergency Evacuation Backpack List for a quick, practical checklist. For the ultimate learning experience, try an earthquake simulator at on of Tokyo's disaster prevention centers.
Canceling your trip based on a dream from a manga artist? That's a personal choice. But it's not one yet backed by science.
Still, stories like this remind us just how powerful fiction can be—not only to entertain but to influence behavior, reshape perception and create real-world consequences.
Even in the age of data and digital alerts, it turns out we're still deeply superstitious creatures.
