An earthquake shook southwestern Japan on Saturday, registering a magnitude of 5.4. As the disaster hit the region, it sparked a wave of reactions online, with many pointing to a manga comic that had predicted such an event.

A manga novel's prediction of a mega-earthquake hitting Japan on July 5th has sparked widespread fear, amplified by recent seismic activity and memories of the devastating 2011 Tohoku earthquake. While seismologists dismiss the prediction as scientifically impossible,

Since June 21, as many as 1,031 earthquakes rattled the Tokara island chain south of the Kyushu region in Japan.