Japan’s shocking win against Germany in the Qatar World Cup last Wednesday was predicted by a river otter named Taiyo. – Photo via Twitter/PopulismUpdates
KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 25): The Qatar World Cup match between Japan and Germany on Wednesday ended with a shocking 2-1 win to Japan.
The Samurai Blue held their end against the four-time world champion with the winning goal scored by Takuma Asano in the final 15 minutes.
However, the shocking win had been predicted just a day before — by a river otter named Taiyo from the Maxell Aqua Park Shinagawa, Tokyo, Japan.
According to Kyodo News, the eight-year-old otter was tasked by its handler to predict the match result by putting a miniature football in one of three buckets.
Taiyo had to choose between three coloured buckets — the blue one had the Japanese flag, the red one had the German flag and a yellow bucket had ‘draw’ labelled on it.
The otter had gone with Japan, surprising even its own handlers.
Following Japan’s win the next day, Taiyo has been making a name for itself online as social media users shared screenshots of him while others were seen praising the otter for its accurate prediction.
“I trust him, i believe him and i don’t want to hear predictions about ANYTHING unless it came from this guy,” user grace tweeted.
“I’m convinced by that serious face. That’s an otter that takes no pleasure in knowing the future,” tweeted user Alyson Claire Decker.
“The only oracular prophecy I subscribe to,” user Eduardo Garcia-Molina tweeted.
An otter has predicted victory for Japan in their upcoming World Cup match against Germany (via @mrjeffu) pic.twitter.com/0Eu3MVmT8q
— Populism Updates (@PopulismUpdates) November 23, 2022
While there are others who hoped Taiyo would make the prediction on Japan’s next match against Costa Rica, according to Yahoo News Japan, the aquarium officials have revealed that Taiyo will not be making any more predictions in the future.
Instead, the otter will be doing mini-performances at the aquarium, which involves him sorting out garbage into the right bucket until December 25.
This wasn’t the first time an animal has been used as an oracle-teller to predict World Cup matches and winners.
Bad news everyone: Taiyō the Otter correctly predicted Japan’s World Cup victory over Germany, but the Maxell Aqua Park aquarium in Tokyo is not planning to ask the otter oracle to predict any future soccer matches. What a wasted opportunity! https://t.co/7n4jrVssBv pic.twitter.com/pQnnvjJCVu
— Jeffrey J. Hall 🇯🇵🇺🇸 (@mrjeffu) November 24, 2022
Previously the world had been introduced to Paul the Octopus who had successfully predicted a string of matches at the 2010 World Cup in Germany as well as the champions at that time which was Spain.
Paul was reported to have died in October 2010 just a few months after the competition in July. – Malay Mail