What was the Kofu incident?
The Kofu incident is an event in which two elementary school boys in Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture, reportedly encountered a UFO that landed in a vineyard and an alien that came out of it, on the evening of February 23, 1975. It is still told as a leading example of a “close encounter with aliens” in Japan.
What the boys saw
According to the two boys, a glowing orange disc-shaped object appeared in the sky and came down in a nearby vineyard. An alien about 1 meter tall emerged, with a wrinkled brown face, large ears and fang-like things sticking out of its mouth, and one of the boys was tapped on the shoulder from behind. Startled, the two ran home, and when they returned with their families, they said, a glowing object was in the vineyard. The incident was covered by newspapers and television and caused a sensation.
The truth of the Kofu incident
UFO researchers and others later investigated the site, but no clear evidence has been found to prove the existence of a UFO or an alien. What the boys saw remains a mystery. It is often presented alongside the Kenneth Arnold sighting and the Roswell incident as a defining event in Japanese UFO history.
