A Japanese cross-party “Study Group on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena from a Security Perspective” — chaired by Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Hamada Yasukazu and others — met with Chief Cabinet Secretary Hayashi Motoko at the Diet on May 28 and submitted a proposal calling for a unified command function to be established within the Cabinet Secretariat for the coordinated handling of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), including UFOs. In a subsequent press conference, Hayashi stated that the government “will continue to respond appropriately, including to unidentified anomalous phenomena,” but made no commitment to a specific institutional arrangement.
The direct background of the proposal was a sighting at the Genkai Nuclear Power Plant in July last year, when three unidentified luminous objects were spotted above the Kyushu Electric Power plant in Saga Prefecture. The proposal noted that information from various departments was not unified at the time, exposing gaps in coordination mechanisms. The proposal also pointed to the recent release of UFO-related files by the U.S. government in stages, calling on the Japanese government to proactively retrieve and scrutinize the disclosed American information. The U.S. Department of Defense has already established a specialized “All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office” (AARO) for related matters, while Japan has had no corresponding permanent institution until now.
[Kyodo News via China] (日本议联建议在内阁官房设立UFO应对指挥功能)