Small earthquakes have occurred in succession in the Tokara Islands, south of Kagoshima Prefecture in Kyushu, Japan. On social media (SNS), unfounded rumors are spreading in conjunction with the 'July major earthquake prediction.'
According to the Yomiuri Shimbun on the 29th, in the Tokara Islands, from the 21st to 6 p.m. the previous day, 525 earthquakes with a magnitude greater than 1 were observed.
The Japan Meteorological Agency's seismic intensity, unlike the magnitude that signifies absolute strength, indicates a person's relative feeling or the relative shaking of surrounding objects when an earthquake occurs, represented by numbers from 1 to 7. The weakest level of shaking is 1.
On that day, more than 40 earthquakes occurred in the Tokara Islands. The maximum magnitude was 4.7, and shaking of intensity 4, which surprised most people in some areas, was detected.
The Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) reported, 'The area around the Tokara Islands is close to the Ryukyu Trench, where the Philippine Plate goes under the Eurasian Plate,' and 'It is also known for having many volcanic islands and underwater volcanoes, making it seismically active.'
As a result, the so-called 'Tokara Law' has been mentioned, where it is said that if earthquakes occur in succession near the Tokara Islands, a major earthquake will follow in another location, especially around SNS in Japan and Hong Kong.
Earlier this month, rumors circulated that a major earthquake would occur in Japan in July this year, based on the manga by Tatsuki Fujimoto titled 'The Future I Saw, Complete Edition.' The fact that this manga artist predicted the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 and the COVID-19 outbreak contributed to public anxiety about a major earthquake forming in Japan and Chinese territories. Notably, in Hong Kong, where the major earthquake theory first gained popularity, the number of visitors to Japan decreased by 11.2% compared to the same month last year.
However, experts point out that there is no scientific basis for this. Hisayoshi Yokose, a professor at Kumamoto University, told Mainichi Shimbun, 'All these earthquakes are minor,' and 'It's hard to believe that such moderate earthquakes would trigger a gigantic earthquake.' The Nikkei quoted Junichi Nakajima, a professor at Tokyo University of Science, stating, 'It's not uncommon for other earthquakes to occur while swarm earthquakes are happening in Japan due to its seismic activity,' and 'Scientifically, it's difficult to see a connection between the Tokara earthquakes and a major earthquake.'