Author Ben Goto. Photo © Jiji Press.
Author Ben Goto, whose book Prophecies of Nostradamus was loosely adapted into a controversial disaster film at Toho Studios in 1974, died on June 16. He was 90 years old.
Born Tsutomu Goto on November 17, 1929, in Hakodate, Hokkaido, the author better known around the world as Ben Goto graduated from Tohoku University's School of Law and launched his award-winning writing and journalism career in 1953 after moving to Tokyo.
On November 25, 1973, the Japanese publishing company Shodensha released Goto's groundbreaking Prophecies of Nostradamus, which quickly became a bestseller, with more than 2.5 million copies sold. Its central warning that the world was likely to end in July 1999 resonated with Japanese readers at the time, particularly due to the country's rampant pollution problems. Toho released its film adaptation of the book on August 3, 1974.
According to an article in the Japan Times, Goto was quoted in a recent interview as saying, "When I published that book in 1973, the possibility existed of World War III between the United States and the Soviet Union. An end-of-the-world scenario by 1999 seemed fully imaginable.”
A total of 10 volumes of Nostradamus books were eventually published by Shodensha throughout the years, the last one being published in July 1998. Each book in the series sold reasonably well, but none of the other entries matched the impact of the first release.
In the same Japan Times article, Goto also asserts, "Nostradamus accurately predicted the moon landing and credit card loans." So Nostradamus predicted credit card loans, too? All that's missing is Jack Ryland bombastically intoning, "And it came to pass."
Rest in peace, Ben Goto.
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