The late author Sakyo Komatsu’s best-selling 1973 sci-fi novel “Japan Sinks” depicts the Japanese archipelago being consumed by the sea following a series of catastrophic earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis.

Adapted numerous times over the years across various media, the two-volume epic highlighted the geological risks facing the quake-prone nation and foreshadowed the disasters it would face in the decades to come.

So it felt like an ominous coincidence when a Japanese television drama series based on the novel premiered on Oct. 10, three days after a magnitude-5.9 earthquake shook Tokyo and its surrounding prefectures.