TOKYO: “Japanese Lawmakers Investigate UFO Security ‘Threat'”, UFO sightings should not be dismissed out of hand because they could in fact be surveillance drones or weapons, say Japanese lawmakers who launched a group on Thursday (Jun 6) to probe the matter.
Although the phenomenon is often associated with little green men in the popular imagination, it has become a hot political topic in the United States.
Washington said last year it was examining 510 UFO reports – more than triple the number in its 2021 file – and NASA in September said it wants to shift the conversation “from sensationalism to science”.
The Japanese parliamentarians hope to bring the domestic perception of UAPs in line with its ally’s following several scares related to suspected surveillance operations.
“It is extremely irresponsible of us to be resigned to the fact that something is unknowable, and to keep turning a blind eye to the unidentified,” group member and former defence minister Yasukazu Hamada said before the launch.
In an embarrassment for Japan’s defence ministry, unauthorised footage of a docked helicopter destroyer recently proliferated on Chinese social media after an apparent drone intrusion into a military facility.
The issue of unidentified flying objects is always a matter of concern for governments, particularly when there’s suspicion of surveillance activities. If the Japanese ministry stated that they strongly presume these flying objects to be surveillance balloons sent by China, it suggests there’s ongoing monitoring and analysis of aerial activities in Japanese airspace. Such statements often reflect diplomatic tensions and the need for vigilance in national security matters.
In Japan, UFOs have long been seen as “an occult matter that has nothing to do with politics”, opposition lawmaker Yoshiharu Asakawa, a pivotal member of the group, has said.