In short:
Japan has seen a decline in tourists, especially from China, with some citing a disaster prediction in a manga (Japanese comic book) that was first published in 1999.
The manga The Future I Saw details the dreams of the author, including one that some believe predicted Japan’s tsunami in 2011.
What’s next?
The manga’s reprint in 2021 triggered rumours a catastrophic event would occur on July 5, 2025, which has sparked concerns from some superstitious tourists about travelling to Japan.
It couldn’t possibly related to a global decline in tourism, could it? No, obviously it’s this obscure manga 1999 that’s responsible.
I live in Taiwan, so I’m pretty close to Japan. Plane ticket prices to Japan are dropping, and there are rumors also of people leaving (temporarily?) from Japan for this occasion. So yeah, some people take it seriously 😅
It’s a great time to visit Japan. The yen is really down, so the exchange rate is great.
And I hear tourism is going down, so it might be less crowded.
There’s a global decline in tourism?
To the USA, definitely. I would also expect problems with Russian international tourism as well.
I don’t know why Japan would be having issues, though.
It could be that they tend to be hostile towards foreigners.
And all of a sudden all the foreigners got that intel?
Tbf they probably have good reason.
Not really, no. Japan is just traditionally pretty xenophobic.
I don’t know about that. there has been a huge slew of foreigners coming in and buying up all their affordable land and housing to make AirBnBs. if that were happening in my area I’d hate foreigners too. especially because most are likely not making any effort to fit in with the community and are just creating wealthy expat enclaves taking advantage of the low yen value.
also if comparing xenophobia have you seen -gestures to the rest of the entire world-
I mean it’s probably not the only reason, but like this is actually a thing. Flights are being canceled over this.