By Japan Today Editor
Japan’s weather agency said an earthquake that rattled small islands in the nation’s southwest on Saturday was in no way connected to a manga author’s disaster prediction that went viral on social media.
“It is absolutely a coincidence. There is no causal connection,” Ayataka Ebita of the Japan Meteorological Agency told a press conference.
Earlier in the day, a temblor with a preliminary magnitude of 5.4 struck off the Tokara island chain, the latest in a series of seismic events in the area.
Speculation has spread that Japan will be hit by a major disaster in July — specifically on Saturday, July 5 — based on a prediction made in “The Future I Saw,” a manga authored by Japanese artist Ryo Tatsuki.
Tatsuki gained a profile after her prediction of a “major calamity” in March 2011 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 accurately predict earthquakes, and any that appear to fit the manga’s prediction are purely coincidental.
“In Japan, earthquakes can happen at any time. Please be prepared always,” he added.
The quake on Saturday occurred at 6:29 a.m. at a depth of about 19 kilometers, and no tsunami warning was issued. It measured upper 5 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7, the agency said.
The magnitude and depth of the quake’s focus were revised from 5.3 and 20 km, respectively.
The number of quakes detected in the Tokara island chain area has exceeded 1,300 since June 21. A temblor with a magnitude of 5.5, measuring lower 6 of the Japanese scale, jolted the area Thursday.
Around a dozen residents evacuated from Akuseki Island, which has experienced strong shaking throughout the period of instability, to Kagoshima on the main island of Kyushu via ferry on Friday.
Akuseki Island has an area of less than 8 square kilometers and a population of 89, according to the local government.