The cancellations follow the spread of predictions linked to a manga depicting a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami.

There have been more than 900 earthquakes, most of them small tremors, on islands off the southern tip of Kyushu in recent days.

By Tom Bateman, Kathleen Benoza and Joyce Zhou TOKYO/HONG KONG (Reuters) -Viral rumours of impending disaster stemming from a comic book prediction have taken the sheen off Japan's tourism boom, with some airlines cancelling flights from Hong Kong where passengers numbers have plunged.