How One Controversial Manga Is Reducing Tourism to Japan

Danica Davidson April 30, 2025

Popular manga titles often bring tourism to Japan, but one controversial manga is reducing tourism.

Watashi ga Mita Mirai (translated as The Future I Saw) by Ryo Tatsuki was originally published in 1999, and it’s about Tatsuki’s dreams. She alleges that sometimes her dreams come true, and that she had a dream about a really bad tsunami.

Then we get to March 11, 2011, when Japan had a major earthquake, followed by a tsunami. One of the illustrations in her manga predicts “A Big Disaster on March 2011.” That convinced some people that she had predicted the future. Suddenly, Tatsuki and her book got really famous.

Then she came out with Watashi ga Mita Mirai Kanzenban (translated as The Future I Saw: The Complete Edition). In this one she’s more specific with one of her predictions, saying that something terrible is going to happen on July 5, 2025.

The book really took off in Hong Kong, and Greater Bay Airlines noticed that, reservation-wise, they’re getting 30% fewer people flying from Hong Kong to Japan and vice versa. According to their research, they believe fewer people are flying because they’re scared of the prophecy.

On top of that, a well-known person who practices feng shui in Hong Kong predicted that Japan will suffer a major earthquake between June and August this year.

While there are many people who take these predictions seriously, there are a lot of people who scoff them. One is Yoshihiro Murai, the governor of Miyagi Prefecture. “I think it’s a problem that this information, based on rather unscientific evidence, is spreading on social media and having an impact on tourism,” grumbled Governor Murai.

SoraNews24 also captured examples of Japanese people online who don’t believe that Tatsuki can predict anything:

“Just calling it a ‘great disaster’ is comfortably vague, isn’t it?”
“Gee, thanks a lot, occult YouTubers.”
“ I wonder how sales are doing.”

And then there was this comment:

“Great, now I have to lose my virginity by July.”

Source: SoraNews24

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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, plus its sequel, Manga Art for Everyone, and the first-of-its-kind manga chalk book Chalk Art Manga, both illustrated by professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.