Are you familiar with Fortean Times? It is a British Magazine with a focus on the bizarre, folkloric and weird. My Japanese isn't good enough to read Mu, but the covers seem to cover similar topics as FT.
As others have mentioned, The Fortean Times is the western equivalent of Mu. Weirdly, the Fortean Times is quite expensive. I remember being unable to afford a subscription in college.
I had no idea a well-established publisher like Gakken published that magazine. Good for them for trying to stay as apolitical as possible. I don't think that the UFOlogist/cryptozoologist/etc. folks in the US have done the same.
I suspect the tipping point for conspiracy is bigotry. The more of that you have, the easier it is to weaponize conspiracies. Japan has its problems, particularly against specific minority groups, but it does not feel as torn along cultural lines as the US is, and that's another reason you see conspiracies being politicized there but not as much here.
Ah! I see Ungerade beat me to the punch. The Fortean Times is our own English version. Like Mu it has always been apolitical. It’s a funny and often fascinating read.
Did you write anything about last months drop in Chinese tourism numbers to Japan because of a manga prophecy.
A quick google search reports back to me that “In June, there was a significant decrease in tourism to Japan, particularly from China and other East Asian countries, due to a prophecy in a Japanese manga predicting a major earthquake and tsunami on July 5, 2025. The manga, "The Future I Saw," by Ryo Tatsuki, gained traction after its 2011 prediction of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami was noticed by readers.”
That is a really interesting story, and another throwback to the nostalgic-occult era I mentioned. Tatsuki’s manga, which was originally published in 1999, “predicted” the 3/11/2011 disaster. She penned a sequel, based on a dream, predicting another one in July of this year. Word got around, and superstitious sorts avoided visiting Japan around this time. Mu, of course, covered it as well — the image anchoring this essay is actually taken from the cover of that issue, and evokes Tatsuki’s vision.
I must admit that it was quite nice walking around an uncrowded downtown Tokyo during that time. Harajuku felt like I remembered it when I moved here in the Aughts. A cynical part of me wonders if another sequel might be the antidote to overtourism many are asking for!
Why don’t we write it? We need pedophiles, politicians and celebrities along with a sprinkling of K-Pop (“It’s so hot right now”), and a believable cataclysmic event with a historical precursor.
Maybe add a dash of Epstein and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion because it’d be nice to also see a drop in American and European tourism numbers too. I would prefer to be the only 6ft+ gaijin on the JR Line when I visit. 🫡
Never heard of Mu but my wife knows it. "Ah, that's Mu. It's very famous in Japan," she said. I bet it would make for great fun reading, especially during the summer holidays, just to provide a few chills.
In America there was Omni Magazine in the late 1970s until 1995 that published similar content, but with a bigger emphasis on the science in pseudoscience. The other extremes were the National Enquirer (which is still published ) and Weekly World news which reported on UFOs and Elvis or Bigfoot sightings or offspring from Elvis encounters with Bigfoot on a UFO. I haven’t read Mu but I assume it is more serious and “science” centric and less sensational.
Omni! I recall my family being subscribed and I also remember it being science-focused as well. I don't really consider the Enquirer in the same league. Mu is tabloid-adjacent -- the taglines on the cover lean sensational, but it doesn't really spin itself as a topical news source -- or even a source of truth, really. That last bit is key.
Fascinating, I didn't know about Mu but I'm curious to check it out now. Something about how Japan is completely fine with differing or even contrasting opinions & hobbies (?) coexisting side by side, as long as they don't do any harm or disrupt public order, is so interesting to me. Might be rooted in eastern philosophy? Plus I feel that people here have historically been & continue to be very superstitious, even with science firmly established as well. I hope Japan will be able to keep some of that peaceful coexistence of contrasts in the future as well.
Well Japan does seem to have more religious cults than other countries. These used to be common in America, but seem to have faded away. The last one I remember was the Heaven’s Gate cult in California in the late 1990s who killed themselves when the UFO they were waiting for failed to arrive.
I'm not sure what the percentage of population is relative to other countries, but cults are a problem here. After the Aum attack on the subways, Mu took heat for platforming them, when Aum were just another kooky spiritual group, before they started running for political office and then turned terrorist. It's a big reason why the magazine stays out of politics today, I think.
If you're interested in reading more about Japan's complicated spirituality, Hiroko (who's also here on Substack as "Japan Happiness") touched on the subject when she wrote about Abe's assassination for the New Yorker.
Thanks for the link to that interesting article. This passage was surprising:
According to statistics published last year by the Japanese government’s Agency for Cultural Affairs, a hundred and eighty thousand groups are officially registered as religious corporations. Together, these groups claim more than a hundred and eighty million followers—a startling figure, given Japan’s population of a hundred and twenty-six million. In an accompanying report, the agency says that the numbers of followers were inflated by citizens’ “weak sense of religious belonging,” meaning that respondents felt comfortable claiming a relationship with multiple faiths simultaneously. Even so, in survey after survey, some seventy to eighty per cent of citizens profess to having no religious beliefs at all.
Are you familiar with Fortean Times? It is a British Magazine with a focus on the bizarre, folkloric and weird. My Japanese isn't good enough to read Mu, but the covers seem to cover similar topics as FT.
Ah, yes, the Fortean Times! How could I forget. Yes, there is a similarity there. (In my defense I did say "no equivalent in America!")
As others have mentioned, The Fortean Times is the western equivalent of Mu. Weirdly, the Fortean Times is quite expensive. I remember being unable to afford a subscription in college.
I had no idea a well-established publisher like Gakken published that magazine. Good for them for trying to stay as apolitical as possible. I don't think that the UFOlogist/cryptozoologist/etc. folks in the US have done the same.
I suspect the tipping point for conspiracy is bigotry. The more of that you have, the easier it is to weaponize conspiracies. Japan has its problems, particularly against specific minority groups, but it does not feel as torn along cultural lines as the US is, and that's another reason you see conspiracies being politicized there but not as much here.
Another banger of an essay. Thanks Mat.
Ah! I see Ungerade beat me to the punch. The Fortean Times is our own English version. Like Mu it has always been apolitical. It’s a funny and often fascinating read.
Did you write anything about last months drop in Chinese tourism numbers to Japan because of a manga prophecy.
A quick google search reports back to me that “In June, there was a significant decrease in tourism to Japan, particularly from China and other East Asian countries, due to a prophecy in a Japanese manga predicting a major earthquake and tsunami on July 5, 2025. The manga, "The Future I Saw," by Ryo Tatsuki, gained traction after its 2011 prediction of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami was noticed by readers.”
What’s that all about?
That is a really interesting story, and another throwback to the nostalgic-occult era I mentioned. Tatsuki’s manga, which was originally published in 1999, “predicted” the 3/11/2011 disaster. She penned a sequel, based on a dream, predicting another one in July of this year. Word got around, and superstitious sorts avoided visiting Japan around this time. Mu, of course, covered it as well — the image anchoring this essay is actually taken from the cover of that issue, and evokes Tatsuki’s vision.
I must admit that it was quite nice walking around an uncrowded downtown Tokyo during that time. Harajuku felt like I remembered it when I moved here in the Aughts. A cynical part of me wonders if another sequel might be the antidote to overtourism many are asking for!
Why don’t we write it? We need pedophiles, politicians and celebrities along with a sprinkling of K-Pop (“It’s so hot right now”), and a believable cataclysmic event with a historical precursor.
Maybe add a dash of Epstein and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion because it’d be nice to also see a drop in American and European tourism numbers too. I would prefer to be the only 6ft+ gaijin on the JR Line when I visit. 🫡
What are those limits?
That is the big, ongoing question. And probably needs another essay to analyze.
Never heard of Mu but my wife knows it. "Ah, that's Mu. It's very famous in Japan," she said. I bet it would make for great fun reading, especially during the summer holidays, just to provide a few chills.
In America there was Omni Magazine in the late 1970s until 1995 that published similar content, but with a bigger emphasis on the science in pseudoscience. The other extremes were the National Enquirer (which is still published ) and Weekly World news which reported on UFOs and Elvis or Bigfoot sightings or offspring from Elvis encounters with Bigfoot on a UFO. I haven’t read Mu but I assume it is more serious and “science” centric and less sensational.
Omni! I recall my family being subscribed and I also remember it being science-focused as well. I don't really consider the Enquirer in the same league. Mu is tabloid-adjacent -- the taglines on the cover lean sensational, but it doesn't really spin itself as a topical news source -- or even a source of truth, really. That last bit is key.
Fascinating, I didn't know about Mu but I'm curious to check it out now. Something about how Japan is completely fine with differing or even contrasting opinions & hobbies (?) coexisting side by side, as long as they don't do any harm or disrupt public order, is so interesting to me. Might be rooted in eastern philosophy? Plus I feel that people here have historically been & continue to be very superstitious, even with science firmly established as well. I hope Japan will be able to keep some of that peaceful coexistence of contrasts in the future as well.
Well Japan does seem to have more religious cults than other countries. These used to be common in America, but seem to have faded away. The last one I remember was the Heaven’s Gate cult in California in the late 1990s who killed themselves when the UFO they were waiting for failed to arrive.
I'm not sure what the percentage of population is relative to other countries, but cults are a problem here. After the Aum attack on the subways, Mu took heat for platforming them, when Aum were just another kooky spiritual group, before they started running for political office and then turned terrorist. It's a big reason why the magazine stays out of politics today, I think.
If you're interested in reading more about Japan's complicated spirituality, Hiroko (who's also here on Substack as "Japan Happiness") touched on the subject when she wrote about Abe's assassination for the New Yorker.
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/shinzo-abes-assassin-and-japans-complicated-spirituality
Thanks for the link to that interesting article. This passage was surprising:
According to statistics published last year by the Japanese government’s Agency for Cultural Affairs, a hundred and eighty thousand groups are officially registered as religious corporations. Together, these groups claim more than a hundred and eighty million followers—a startling figure, given Japan’s population of a hundred and twenty-six million. In an accompanying report, the agency says that the numbers of followers were inflated by citizens’ “weak sense of religious belonging,” meaning that respondents felt comfortable claiming a relationship with multiple faiths simultaneously. Even so, in survey after survey, some seventy to eighty per cent of citizens profess to having no religious beliefs at all.
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If you found that interesting, you're going to enjoy Hiroko's upcoming book, which is about that very topic, told through memoir: https://blog.hirokoyoda.com/p/eight-million-ways-to-happiness
Thanks, I preordered it.
Enjoy!