TOKYO -- Every week, millions of Japanese TV viewers tune in to watch a couple of men building a bunker for the end of the world. It's a race against time. They have to finish before July.
As the end of the century nears, Japan has come under an odd spell -- the apocalyptic preachings of the 16th century soothsayer Nostradamus.Bookshelves are lined with Nostradamus spinoffs. Celebrities comment earnestly on his predictions. The Internet is awash with thousands of Japanese Web sites devoted to the French prophet of doom.
"Will mankind be extinguished in 1999?" one Web site says. "This is not an issue to be taken lightly."
Nostradamus, whose prophecies made him so famous in his lifetime that he came under the patronage of Catherine de Medicis, has been a household name in Japan for over two decades.
And he's always been big during times of crisis.
During the oil shock of the 1970s, a Japanese author penned the best-selling book that first introduced Nostradamus' prophecies to a mass audience in Japan. It sold more than 2 million copies.
Another wave of interest in Nostradamus broke out during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, which spawned a cottage industry in World War III predictions.
But today, the gloom of Japan's recession and jitters about the international situation -- from the war in Kosovo to missile tests by North Korea -- have created the most virulent Nostradamus boom yet, experts say.
"It's excessive," said Teigo Yoshida, a professor of cultural anthropology at Japan's prestigious Tokyo University. "In times of social uncertainty, these theories gain popularity."
As evidence of Nostradamus' popularity, two dozen books on him or his predictions were published in Japan last year. Eleven more have been released so far this year.
Timing, of course, has given Nostradamus a strong boost.
"There has been a big surge in the popularity of Nostradamus with the last year of the millennium," said Fumiko Takahashi, a spokeswoman for the Japan's Publishers Association.
Nostradamus predicted millennium doom, writing that "the great king of terror will fall from the sky in the seventh month of the year 1999."
Nostradamus' prophecies, which were written in verse and collected in a book called "Centuries," are extremely cryptic and open to a wide range of interpretations.