An octopus that correctly predicted the results of all Japan’s World Cup group stage games was turned into seafood before the team had even kicked a ball in the knockout round of the tournament.

Rabio the octopus had become the latest animal to be heralded with football fortune-telling powers after it was caught by fisherman in the town of Obira, in Hokkaido, on the day of the Samurai Blues’ opening game against Colombia.

Placed in a plastic pool and encouraged to pick one of three boxes representing a win, loss, or draw for the national team, the mollusc correctly tipped them to beat the South American side in their first match.

It went on to rack up a perfect record by also predicting Japan’s draw with Senegal and defeat to Poland as they narrowly qualified as runners-up in Group H.

However, much like defending champions Germany, Rabio’s presence will be absent from the knockout rounds of the tournament.

Kimio Abe, who caught the animal, revealed it had since been taken to market, where it was sold and turned into seafood.

The fisherman said he would be using a new octopus, Rabio Jr, to predict Japan’s results for the rest of the World Cup.

And, in a tournament already full of upsets, Rabio Jr believes another could be on the cards after it tipped the national team to defeat much-fancied Belgium in their round of 16 tie on Monday.

“I'm glad that all the forecasts turned out correct and Japan moved on to the knockout stage,” Mr Abe told Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun.

“I hope Rabio's successor will accurately tip the results of all games and Japan will win the World Cup.”

Life on the Streets during the Russia World Cup Show all 12 1 /12 Life on the Streets during the Russia World Cup Life on the Streets during the Russia World Cup The World Cup alters the look of things. Tourists peer through murder-holes in the remains of the city’s nineteenth-century fortresses, while legends of the game stand high above them and stare back out at the city. Richard Morgan/The Independent Life on the Streets during the Russia World Cup Football provides a place to hide. It also semi-conceals everyday life. Even Kvass, the traditional Russian drink, is being dressed up as a football beverage. Richard Morgan/The Independent Life on the Streets during the Russia World Cup Victory Square, usually a slow moving, relaxed space for socialising, is transformed into a desperate struggle for World Cup paraphernalia as Moroccan fans hand out free football shirts. Richard Morgan/The Independent Life on the Streets during the Russia World Cup The central marker of the World Cup in Kaliningrad is an abandoned Soviet building project – the House of Soviets. Once planned to be a socialist administration hub, the Brutalist structure now looms large as a flag bearer of Fifa’s global commercial enterprise. Photos Richard Morgan/The Independent Life on the Streets during the Russia World Cup At other times, football’s presence in the lives of the city’s inhabitants is less immediate, more peripheral, and seen only in the distance. The Arena Baltika, host to England’s World Cup match against Belgium, sits on the horizon as urban fisherman check out their catch. Richard Morgan/The Independent Life on the Streets during the Russia World Cup Some people work to make the World Cup a time of leisure for others. Somebody’s got to clean the stairway to beef and beer. Richard Morgan/The Independent Life on the Streets during the Russia World Cup Authority and football go hand-in-hand, seen everywhere together, joined by an unbreakable bond. Even when two policemen stop for a smoke, they are framed by the kick of a ball. Richard Morgan/The Independent Life on the Streets during the Russia World Cup To the bodies of women, it seems, pinned-up outside a strip club, must now be added a football. Sex sells, but during the World Cup its lure is stronger if it becomes part of the game. Richard Morgan/The Independent Life on the Streets during the Russia World Cup Reflections of buildings and people are dotted with footballs, obscuring the view of the city and shifting perspective of passer-by. Richard Morgan/The Independent Life on the Streets during the Russia World Cup I wondered how long the traces of the World Cup would last here, how long its visual imagery would take to fade away. Perhaps it never will, I thought, but would instead remain forever, like hieroglyphics from a time when Kaliningrad was a football city. Richard Morgan/The Independent Life on the Streets during the Russia World Cup Life on the Streets during the Russia World Cup

Rabio is not the only octopus to have been blessed with the supposed psychic power of predicting international football matches.

In 2010, Paul, an octopus at an aquarium in Oberhausen, correctly predicted all of Germany’s games during the World Cup in South Africa, as well as picking winners Spain to beat the Netherlands in the final.

Achilles, a cat living at St Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum, tipped Russia to win the opening game of this year’s tournament against Saudi Arabia.