CNN
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Japan’s authorities on Saturday warned of extra doable sturdy earthquakes in waters southwest of its primary islands, however urged the general public to not consider unfounded predictions of a serious catastrophe.
Authorities on Friday evacuated some residents from distant islands near the epicenter of a 5.5-magnitude quake off the tip of the southernmost primary island of Kyushu.
That quake on Thursday, sturdy sufficient to make standing tough, was one in every of greater than 1,000 tremors within the islands of Kagoshima prefecture prior to now two weeks which have fueled rumors stemming from a comic book e-book prediction {that a} main catastrophe would befall the nation this month.
“With our present scientific information, it’s tough to foretell the precise time, place or scale of an earthquake,” mentioned Ayataka Ebita, director of the Japan Meteorological Company’s earthquake and tsunami monitoring division, after a 5.4-magnitude quake shook the realm once more on Saturday.
“We ask that individuals base their understanding on scientific proof,” Ebita advised a press convention.
The manga, which some have interpreted as predicting a catastrophic occasion on Saturday, has prompted some vacationers to keep away from Japan. Arrivals from Hong Kong, the place the rumors have circulated extensively, had been down 11% in Might from the identical month final yr, in response to the most recent information.
Japan has had document customer numbers this yr, with April setting an document month-to-month excessive of three.9 million vacationers.
Ryo Tatsuki, the artist behind the manga “The Future I Noticed,” first revealed in 1999 and re-released in 2021, mentioned she was “not a prophet,” in an announcement issued by her writer.
Earthquakes are widespread in Japan, one of many world’s most seismically lively areas. It accounts for about one-fifth of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6 or larger.
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