The Tokara Islands in Kagoshima Prefecture are continuing to shake. In less than two weeks, the archipelago, which consists of 12 small islands located between Yakushima and Amami-Oshima, has experienced more than 900 earthquakes. The constant tremors have, understandably, left residents feeling apprehensive. “It feels like it’s always shaking,” one person who lives there told the regional broadcaster MBC. “It’s very scary to even fall asleep.” Another commented, “It’s not clear when all this will end. I should think about whether to evacuate my kids.”
Over 900 Earthquakes Since June 21
From June 21 to late afternoon on Wednesday, a total of 911 earthquakes were recorded in the region. On Thursday afternoon, at 4:13 p.m., a magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck Toshima Village. It registered lower 6 on the shindo scale, which measures the degree of shaking. Lower 6 indicates that most people would find it difficult to remain standing. A 5.6 magnitude quake struck the same village on Wednesday afternoon at 3:26 p.m. Earlier in the day, residents there were woken by a 5.1 magnitude quake.
An emergency press conference was held following the afternoon earthquake. “Seismic activity has been very active in the seas around the Tokara Island chain since June 21,” said Ayataka Ebita, director of the agency’s Earthquake and Tsunami Observation Division. “We want people in areas where tremors were strong to ensure their safety and watch out for falling rocks and landslides. We don’t know when the seismic activity will end. Given past examples, we want people to be prepared for an earthquake with a seismic intensity of around upper 5.”
Ryo Tatsuki’s ‘July 5 Disaster Prophecy’
The earthquake swarm on the Tokara Islands has further ignited fears of a catastrophic disaster hitting Japan soon. In the “complete version” of her book, The Future I Saw, released in 2021, Ryo Tatsuki wrote about a dream originally seen on July 5, which seemed to tell her “a disaster will occur in July 2025.” The first edition of the manga, published in 1999, warned of a major natural disaster in March 2011, leading many to believe that she predicted the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Tohoku.
Tatsuki, however, recently played down the prophetic quality of her dream. “July 5 isn’t necessarily the date of any disaster,” she said. “It might just be the date I had the dream, which doesn’t mean anything will actually occur on that day.” She added, “People’s interest in these predictions shows that awareness around disaster preparedness is rising, and that’s a good thing… Just because I had a dream on a certain day doesn’t mean anything will actually happen on that date, so there’s no need to be overly anxious.”
