Place
35.69 N, 139.69 EView on OpenStreetMap (opens in a new tab)
9 events here, 1952 to 2024, in date order.
Control tower operators at Haneda AFB in Tokyo watched a bright light over Tokyo Bay that ground radar tracked at the same time; a scrambled F-94 got a brief radar lock before losing it. Ruppelt said the Far East Air Force investigators rated it among their best cases.
UFO researcher Arai Kin'ichi founded the Japan Flying Saucer Research Association in 1955. It reportedly grew past 1,000 members; novelist Mishima Yukio joined in 1956 and wrote for its bulletin Uchuki in 1957.
Answering a question from opposition lawmaker Ryuji Yamane, Japan's cabinet formally stated it had not confirmed any UFOs believed to come from outer space. Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura then told reporters he personally believed they exist, and the defense minister weighed in.
Japanese Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba told reporters, as his personal view, that there were no grounds to deny UFOs exist, and mused on how the pacifist constitution would let the military respond to an alien arrival. The remarks followed a cabinet colleague's similar comment that week.
Answering a written question from lower-house lawmaker Seiji Osaka, the cabinet said it had never confirmed UFOs thought to come from beyond Earth and had made no special study of how to respond if one entered Japanese airspace. The question also cited the U.S. Pentagon's UFO program.
Asked about the Pentagon release of Navy UFO videos, Japanese Defense Minister Taro Kono said no SDF pilot had met a UFO and that he did not really believe in them, but that encounter procedures would be set and Japan would seek the US analysis.
Defense Minister Taro Kono issued standing orders telling Japan's Self-Defense Forces to record and photograph unidentified aerial objects and analyze sightings, including public reports. The ministry said it knew of no SDF encounters, and Kono had said he did not believe in UFOs.
Japan's ruling LDP and Komeito approved a government plan on Feb. 16, 2023 to relax rules on using weapons against unmanned objects violating Japanese airspace. It followed the Defense Ministry's statement that objects seen in 2019-2021 were strongly suspected to be Chinese spy balloons.
More than 80 Japanese lawmakers formed a nonpartisan group, headed by former defense minister Yasukazu Hamada, urging the government to create a body to gather and analyze UAP information and to work with the U.S. AARO. Members framed UAP chiefly as possible security threats.
