foreign-government-record2020· Ministry of Defense, Tokyo, Japan
On September 14, 2020, Japanese Defence Minister Tarō Kōno announced that the Japan Self-Defence Forces had adopted a formal protocol requiring SDF pilots to photograph, record, and report any encounter with unidentified aerial phenomena. The directive was Japan's first standing order on UAP encounters and was modelled in part on the U.S. Navy's 2019 reporting guidelines.
Kōno told reporters he had not been personally briefed on any past Japanese UAP incidents but instructed the SDF to coordinate with the U.S. military on UAP matters under the bilateral security alliance. The protocol was reaffirmed and discussed publicly in subsequent years as Japanese fiscal-year scramble data became part of the official UAP record.
Citations
- Japan's Defense Ministry establishes protocol for UFO encounters· The Japan Times, 2020
- Japan's Defense Ministry Launches Protocol for UFO Sightings· The Diplomat, 2020
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