The Kofu Incident was an incident in 1975 in Kofu City, Yamanashi Prefecture, in which an elementary school student allegedly witnessed an unidentified flying object (UFO) and an alien-like occupant. It is considered one of the most well-known cases of UFO and alien-related information in Japan.
Around 6:00 PM on February 23, 1975, two second-grade cousins, from Yamashiro Elementary School in Kofu City, witnessed an orange UFO on their way home.
According to the boys, the UFO flew toward them, causing them to flee and hide in a nearby cemetery. They lost sight of the UFO, but soon spotted it again as it landed in a vineyard. They saw a faceless, chocolate-colored, wrinkled occupant emerge from the craft. One of the boys, was approached from behind and tapped on the shoulder by the occupant, causing him to sit down in fear. The other boy, carried the first one on his back and fled the scene to call his family. When the family arrived, the occupant was gone, but a fiery object was instead in the vineyard. The mother of one of the boys testified that she saw a silver object spinning in the sky, and the father said he saw a fading light. The mother’s account of the sighting was recorded and aired on television.
In addition to the testimony of the children who witnessed the incident and their families, the caretaker of the Kofu City Environmental Center also testified that he had seen a light object in the sky above where the boys were roller skating. Seven years later, in 1982, a female insurance saleswoman driving near the UFO landing site said she encountered someone who appeared to be the occupant. This gave the two children’s stories a sense of veracity, and they became a topic of discussion nationwide.
An on-site investigation was conducted with the cooperation of the Yamanashi Nichinichi Shimbun.
In the vineyard at the site, three concrete pillars had collapsed, and the wire mesh covering them was spread wide as if carrying a heavy load. There were several holes in the ground, and traces resembling the tracks of a handcart remained.
In response to these reports, Susumu Maeda, a teacher at a nearby high school, conducted an on-site investigation. Some media outlets reported that residual artificial radiation had been detected at the site where the UFO was believed to have landed. The short half-life of the radiation is considered evidence of an artificial impact. However, despite many questionable points, such as the fact that the pillars were broken but the trees were undamaged, and the physical impossibility of a disk being large enough to pass between the pillars, these points have not been widely acknowledged, leaving the credibility of this incident a mystery.
Source: Wikipedia, CC by-sa 4.0 International License
