Japan becomes ‘hotspot’ for UFO activity

A report on the U.S. Defense Department’s new website, which provides information about unidentified flying objects (UFOs), now referred to as unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), classified Japan as a “hotspot” for UAP sightings in late August 2023.

In response to this designation, the Japanese government launched an 80-member non-partisan group, including former defense ministers, to enhance the country’s capabilities in detecting and analyzing UAP sightings in June 2024. Japan has recorded many UAP incidents over the past decades, with the most notable being the 1972 Kochi Prefecture case, where a miniature UAP was allegedly captured; the 1974 sightings of multiple UAP in Hokkaido Prefecture and the 1975 UAP incident in Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture, in which two boys claim to have encountered an alien. These three incidents are often referred to as the “big three” UAP phenomena in Japan.