U.S. Department of Defense data puts Japan alongside the Middle East and the U.S. East Coast among the world's top three areas for UFO sightings. Through 2025, mysterious lights over a nuclear plant and a bipartisan parliamentary caucus kept the subject in the news, and the framing shifted from the occult to national security. Here is a closer look at how that shift is unfolding.

What's Happening in Japan in 2025

The Mystery Lights Over Genkai Nuclear Plant

At around 9 p.m. on July 26, 2025, four security guards near the main gate of the Genkai Nuclear Power Plant in Kyushu reported "three lights resembling drones." The Saga prefectural police unit stationed at the site confirmed them as well. With gaps when nothing was visible, the last confirmed sighting came at about 10:53 p.m., putting something over the grounds for roughly two hours.

No drone was recovered and no source was identified. Kyushu Electric reported the incident to the Nuclear Regulation Authority as a nuclear-security matter. Taking it seriously, lawmakers held a closed-door meeting at the House of Representatives on August 7, conducting hearings with the Nuclear Regulation Authority, Ministry of Defense, and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

The accounts later diverged. On September 19, Saga prefectural police chief Hideyuki Fukuda told the prefectural assembly that the lights were consistent with the flight paths of aircraft overhead at the time, and that guards had most likely mistaken aircraft lights for drones. Kyushu Electric maintained that it had ruled out aircraft and had heard something resembling motor noise. The two accounts have not been reconciled.

The connection between UFOs and nuclear facilities has been reported worldwide, from sightings at Fukushima Daiichi during the 2011 disaster to UAP appearances over U.S. nuclear missile sites. The world map published by AARO likewise marks western Japan and the Sea of Japan as an area of frequent reports.

Fukushima's "UFO Village" Thrives

The town of Iino in Fukushima City has been reporting UFO sightings since the 1970s. Mount Senganmori, a 462.5-meter conical mountain, has long been speculated to serve as a UFO base due to its distinctive pyramid-like shape.

The International Unidentified Flying Object Research Institute, established in 2021, has received over 1,000 sighting reports since opening. In June 2025, the annual "UFO Day Senganmori Festival" drew crowds with events including public releases of UFO footage and UFO-calling rituals.

Mount Senganmori is said to have a magnetic field strong enough to throw off compasses, and some have argued that the magnetism is what draws UFOs to the area.

Kochi Prefecture: Another Hotspot

The Shikoku region's Kochi Prefecture is another area known for frequent UFO sightings. In Shimanto City, UFO-like objects have been repeatedly spotted since 2024, with some witnesses capturing what they believe to be definitive footage.

Japan's Bipartisan UFO Caucus Takes Action

The Birth of the "UFO Caucus"

On June 6, 2024, the "Parliamentary League for Clarifying Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena from a National Security Perspective" (commonly known as the "UFO Caucus") was established within the Japanese Diet. Former Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada serves as chairman, with Shinjiro Koizumi, now defense minister, as secretary-general. Former Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is supreme advisor, and roughly 90 lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties have joined.

At the founding meeting, Chairman Hamada stated: "There are many things in this world we don't understand. What's important is how we handle information and discussions to clarify these unknowns." He also pointed out that insufficient budget has been allocated to investigating unexplained phenomena.

Recommendations to the Ministry of Defense

On May 16, 2025, the caucus submitted a proposal to Defense Minister Gen Nakatani calling for the establishment of a dedicated department within the Ministry of Defense for collecting, investigating, and analyzing UAP (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) information.

Key recommendations included:

  • Establishing a dedicated department equivalent to the U.S. Pentagon's AARO
  • Public disclosure of information to citizens
  • Regular progress reports to the Diet

Defense Minister Nakatani responded that the ministry is "maintaining vigilant information gathering and surveillance, including for unidentifiable objects," and committed to promptly disclosing any new findings.

The Global UAP Disclosure Movement

Developments in the United States

In 2022, the U.S. Department of Defense established the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) as a specialized agency for UAP investigations. AARO has launched a dedicated website publishing declassified information in an effort to increase transparency.

In 2025, the documentary film "The Age of Disclosure" premiered, featuring interviews with 34 senior U.S. government officials exposing an alleged 80-year cover-up of UAP information. The film received Oscar eligibility and garnered significant attention.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio says in the film that something has repeatedly operated in restricted airspace over nuclear facilities, and that it does not belong to the United States.

International Responses

Countries around the world are advancing their UAP responses:

  • France: GEIPAN (under the National Space Research Center) continues UAP investigations
  • Chile: CEFAA promotes UAP research in cooperation with international organizations
  • Canada: The Sky Canada Project studies how UAP reports are managed
  • Japan: Momentum builds for establishing a dedicated department in the Ministry of Defense

Why UFOs Are Now a "National Security Issue"

Once treated as science fiction or occult topics, UFOs are now discussed in a very different context. Reconnaissance balloons and stealth drones represent unidentified flying objects that pose genuine security concerns.

Some UFOs reported in the United States since the 1940s may have actually been secret military developments such as stealth aircraft or drone technology. In other words, some "UFOs" we observe could potentially be adversarial nations' cutting-edge technology.

Most Sightings Have Ordinary Explanations

Balloons, birds, drones and weather account for the bulk of sightings. The 2024 Pentagon report classified roughly half of new reports as ordinary objects. Genkai looks likely to land in the same column, at least by the prefectural police's reading.

Some cases still resist explanation, usually because there is too little data to analyze. What to do with those "unresolved" files is the open question in UAP research.

Update: What Happened in 2026

On May 28, 2026, the UFO caucus met Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara at the Diet and handed him a proposal for a stronger government response. It called for centralizing information in the Cabinet Secretariat, building a command function across ministries, and creating a channel through which sightings can be reported without stigma. The proposal treated the Genkai incident as having exposed a decisive gap in Japan's arrangements, and framed UAP response as a matter of broad crisis management, covering security at critical facilities, coordination with police and aviation authorities, and accountability to the public. Kihara said the government would act on it.

Washington moved too. On May 8, 2026, the Pentagon began releasing UAP records at the direction of President Trump, publishing roughly 160 items including FBI and NASA photographs, videos and documents, some of it footage shot near Japan, with more to follow as material is declassified. As of August 2026, the dedicated Ministry of Defense unit the caucus asked for has not been created.

So, how are UFOs and UAPs viewed in your country? What's your government's stance? Please share your thoughts in the comments!

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