Tokyo | Just 24 hours out from a date some travellers now fear as “earthquake day”, Japanese tourism officials are grappling with a sharp downturn in foreign visitors, spurred not by geopolitics or actual natural disasters, but by a quarter-century-old manga comic book.

Travel bookings to Japan from important regional markets such as China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan have slumped after renewed interest in a cult manga titled The Future I Saw predicted a catastrophic earthquake would strike the country on July 5, 2025.