Japan braces for more quakes, authorities dismiss doomsday hype

Japan's government on Saturday warned of more possible strong earthquakes in waters southwest of its main islands, but urged the public not to believe unfounded predictions of a major disaster.

Authorities on Friday evacuated some residents from remote islands close to the epicentre of a 5.5-magnitude quake off the tip of the southernmost main island of Kyushu.

That quake on Thursday, strong enough to make standing difficult, was one of more than 1,000 tremors in the islands of Kagoshima prefecture in the past two weeks that have fuelled rumours stemming from a comic book prediction that a major disaster would befall the country this month.

"With our current scientific knowledge, it's difficult to predict the exact time, place or scale of an earthquake," said Ayataka Ebita, director of the Japan Meteorological Agency's earthquake and tsunami monitoring division, after a 5.4-magnitude quake shook the area again on Saturday.

"We ask that people base their understanding on scientific evidence," Ebita told a press conference.

The manga, which some have interpreted as predicting a catastrophic event on Saturday, has prompted some travellers to avoid Japan. Arrivals from Hong Kong, where the rumours have circulated widely, were down 11% in May from the same month last year, according to the latest data.

Japan has had record visitor numbers this year, with April setting an record monthly high of 3.9 million travellers.

Ryo Tatsuki, the artist behind the manga "The Future I Saw", first published in 1999 and re-released in 2021, said she was "not a prophet", in a statement issued by her publisher.

Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world's most seismically active areas. It accounts for about one-fifth of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.