A swarm of earthquakes around Japan’s remote Tokara Islands and the eruption of a long-dormant volcano in Kyushu have renewed public anxiety – stoked in part by a manga artist whose work is widely believed to have foretold a 2011 disaster and who has now predicted another major calamity striking Japan in early July.
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Seismologists, however, have dismissed any suggestion of a link between the recent activity and the prediction, stressing that there is no scientific basis for forecasting the timing, location or magnitude of earthquakes.
More than 330 tremors have rattled the Tokara chain in the past five days, according to local reports, including a magnitude-5 quake shortly after 4am on Tuesday. The remote islands lie between the southern tip of Kyushu and the Okinawa islands, in a seismically active stretch of southwestern Japan.
The seismic unrest has coincided with a string of smaller quakes felt in southern Kyushu and the Japan Meteorological Agency’s decision to raise the alert level on Mount Shinmoe – a volcano in central Kyushu – to level three on its five-tier scale.
Shinmoe erupted on Sunday after seven years of dormancy, sending a 500-metre plume of ash into the air. Ashfall has been reported in surrounding areas, while officials have warned that pyroclastic flows and flying rocks could reach up to 2km from the crater.
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While seismologists have not linked the events, the timing has unsettled some members of the public, given that the uptick in activity has coincided with a widely circulated prediction by manga author Ryo Tatsuki.