"The Real Great Disaster Will Come in July"... The 73-Year-Old Prophet Shaking Japan [Japanese Perspective]

Manga Artist Ryo Datsuki, Who Kept a "Dream Diary"
Predicted the Great East Japan Earthquake with Numbers Seen in a Dream
Prophecy Rumors Spread, Leading to Sharp Drop in Chinese-speaking Tourists

This week in Japan, the so-called "July Great Earthquake Theory" has become a hot topic. Amid existing anxieties over events like the Nankai Earthquake, the emergence of an earthquake prophecy has reportedly led to a sharp decline in tourists from China and Taiwan. The prophet responsible for deterring tourists is a 73-year-old retired manga artist. Today, we introduce the much-discussed manga artist Ry? Datsuki.

Datsuki was born in December 1954 in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture. She debuted in a manga magazine in 1975 and was active until 1999, publishing 99 works in total. Even in interviews, she has never revealed her face.

Ry? Datsuki's Complete Edition of "The Future I Saw." The dust jacket reads, "The real great disaster will occur in July 2025." Rakuten Books.

According to an interview with Bungeishunju in 2022, Datsuki began keeping a dream diary in 1985. She found it interesting to record her dreams and analyze them psychologically to understand her own mental state. Since the content was mostly personal, it was not an attempt to seek inspiration for her manga, but simply out of curiosity. Still, she did occasionally experience d?j? vu when something she had seen in a dream seemed to manifest in real life.

In the 1990s, she also contributed to magazines that featured ghost stories and horror experiences. However, because her own dreams were rarely surprising, she mostly used stories from people around her as material. She stated in interviews, "I don't have any spiritual abilities, like seeing ghosts. If I did, I probably wouldn't be afraid to draw horror manga." In fact, she often used scary stories from her sister-in-law, a nurse, who experienced them while working at a hospital.

Later, when she ran out of material, she compiled some of the more unusual entries from her dream diary into two manga works. The last one dealt with a dream about a tsunami: she saw a scene where, even as spring arrived, the temperature remained unstable, small earthquakes occurred everywhere, and then suddenly, in summer, a tsunami struck, with people screaming and running. The editor noted that many readers had requested a manga adaptation of their own terrifying dreams about giant tsunamis, and suggested publishing a work titled "The Future I Saw."

After publishing this, Datsuki decided to retire from manga and, together with her editor-in-chief, set about compiling the works she had drawn into a collected volume. This volume also included manga based on her dream diary.

According to Datsuki herself, the day before finalizing the cover of the collected volume, she had another strange dream while pondering what to draw. In the dream, on a pure white screen like a movie theater, the words "The great disaster will be in March 2011" appeared. She decided to inscribe this on the cover and submitted it. The editor was concerned, asking, "What if this prediction about the future turns out to be wrong?" However, since 2011 was ten years away at the time, Datsuki persuaded the editor that people would have forgotten by then, and the phrase was included on the cover. Notably, it was only on the cover, not in the content of the book.

Then, in March 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake actually occurred. The book began to attract attention online as a prophetic work. However, since it was already out of print, it was republished in a revised edition in 2021 due to its popularity. With this renewed attention, many people began impersonating Datsuki.

Before this republication, Datsuki reportedly had another dream. As in 1999, black letters appeared on a movie screen-like background, reading, "The real great disaster will occur in July 2025." This time, she saw the seabed rising in her dream. As a result, she updated the note on the book's dust jacket before publication. The prophetic dream described the seabed between Japan and the Philippines erupting and a massive tsunami striking Japan. The book sold over 900,000 copies, and a Chinese edition was also published.

Related shorts appearing on YouTube when searching for "The Future I Saw". YouTube.

Now, with just two months left until July, this manga has once again drawn international attention. As a result, the number of Chinese-speaking tourists canceling trips to Japan has increased. Hong Kong airlines have reduced flights from April to October, and Taiwanese news outlets have reported growing anxiety among locals.

Chinese media had previously reported a Japanese shaman's claim that "a massive earthquake will hit Tokyo on April 26," urging people to avoid traveling to Japan. The Chinese Embassy in Japan has also issued notices advising Chinese nationals residing in Japan to carefully plan trips, studies, and real estate transactions. Meanwhile, on social networking services like YouTube, shamans from Japan and Hong Kong have made similar statements, further fueling public anxiety.

In response, Datsuki herself has expressed her surprise. In interviews with outlets such as Mainichi, she said, "I am observing the situation objectively. The attention shows that awareness of disasters is increasing." She added, "I hope this interest leads to better safety measures and preparedness for major earthquakes," and also cautioned, "Interpretation is up to you, but please refer to expert opinions so as not to be unduly swayed."

This has prompted the Japanese government to issue repeated reassurances. The Cabinet Office's disaster prevention official emphasized on X (formerly Twitter) that "it is impossible with current science to predict the exact time and place of an earthquake."

Some reports have also pointed out that, because earthquakes are so frequent in Japan, such prophecies and doomsday theories periodically emerge. They noted that predictions of doom or great earthquakes, such as the rise of Aum Shinrikyo, have always existed and criticized that there is no need for a special reaction.

In any case, a single phrase written on a manga cover has caused a global stir. Considering that the damage from the Great East Japan Earthquake has not yet been fully repaired, it is understandable that people remain anxious.