Photo/Illutration A post in English to the X account of the Japan Meteorological Agency (Captured from Japan Meteorological Agency X account)

The head of Japan’s meteorological agency dismissed a rumor taking Hong Kong by storm about a major earthquake hitting Japan this summer as unscientific.

“It is impossible to forecast an earthquake,” Ryoichi Nomura, director-general of the Japan Meteorological Agency, declared.

The rumor sweeping Hong Kong through social media of a disaster in July has led to a sharp decrease in flight cancellations and reservations, affecting tourism.

It is being spread by those who had read or heard about separate prophecies by a famed local feng shui master and a Japanese manga artist.

The Cabinet Office in late April tried to put the rumor to rest with a post to its X account about the difficulties in predicting a quake for a specific location and approximate date.

But since then, demand for flights from Hong Kong to Japan have remained uncharacteristically low.

From mid-May, one airline reduced the number of roundtrip flights from Hong Kong to Sendai and Tokushima.

But with demand still sluggish in June, the airline will suspend the four roundtrip flights per week between Hong Kong and Kumamoto from July to October and the same number of roundtrip flights between Hong Kong and Kagoshima for July and August.

At his news conference, Nomura stated: “With current scientific knowledge, it is impossible to predict the specific size, location and time that an earthquake will strike. It is regrettable that people are being affected by baseless information in this age of modern science.”

But he noted that an earthquake could hit Japan at any time and stressed the importance of being prepared.

In late May, the JMA posted information in English to its X account that said in part that “current levels of scientific expertise do not allow precise earthquake prediction in terms of timing, location and scale.”

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