Dubbed the “home of aliens”, Iinomachi district in Fukushima city, Japan hopes to revive its economy by attracting tourists.
Once famous and prosperous for its weaving and silk production, Iinomachi district now displays items related to unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and organizes related events.
According to Kyodo News, locals believe they are living in a “UFO hotspot”, due to the repeated appearance of glowing flying objects over the past four decades near the 462m high cone-shaped Senganmori mountain.
Contrary to the recent tension in diplomatic relations between countries related to the case of a Chinese hot air balloon suspected of being a spy device flying into US airspace, a Fukushima city government official said it was important to The local focus is on depicting extraterrestrial life from a more “romantic” perspective.
Extraterrestrial life
Previously, Iinomachi district was called Iino town but was merged into Fukushima city in 2008. The local population is currently about 5,000 people, and is on a decreasing trend. Senganmori mountain is speculated by local people to be an ancient pyramid, because it is triangular and covered with large stone blocks.
Coming to Iinomachi district, visitors can easily encounter “close” extraterrestrial life everywhere such as UFO-shaped street lights, bus stops, flags and even alien statues.
The locality also has the museum “UFO Fureaikan” built halfway up Senganmori mountain in 1992, and displays about 3,000 books, photos and documents related to aliens and UFOs. Some of the documents on display were donated to the museum by famous UFO researcher Kinichi Arai. Every year, about 30,000 people from inside and outside Fukushima Prefecture visit the museum.
In 2022, the UFO festival, where participants dressed in alien costumes to parade and compete, was held for the first time to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the founding of the “UFO Fureaikan” museum.
On June 24, 2021, Iinomachi prefecture was also chosen as the place to establish the International UFO Institute, which collects and publishes reports of UFO sightings around the world. June 24 every year is also called World UFO Day. Because this was the first day American civilian pilot Kenneth Arnold reported seeing a UFO in Washington state in 1947.
UFO enthusiasts can become members of the International UFO Institute by paying an annual fee of 10,000 Yen (74 USD). Elite members, who sign up for a 3-year membership for 20,000 – 30,000 Yen, have the privilege of receiving special t-shirts and locally brewed sake. In addition, all members of this organization can attend UFO-related events.
UFOs are of renewed interest
Interest in UFOs globally increased again, after the US Department of Defense released video in 2020 about phenomena related to unidentified flying objects in 2004 and 2015.
In 2021, the US government also released a preliminary assessment of UFOs, focusing on more than 140 reports collected since 2004 from military pilots and many other sources. But this report does not provide specific explanations for most cases.
Mr. Tetsu Konno (62 years old), a retired former employee of a large-scale chemical manufacturing plant, also joined the International UFO Institute as a researcher in December 2022. He hopes to leverage his sales and marketing experience from his previous job to economically revive his hometown of Fukushima.
After being selected by the Fukushima city government to participate in the Iinomachi district economic reconstruction project, Mr. Konno said goodbye to his family in Osaka Prefecture, where he had lived for more than 30 years.
“When I heard people say they saw bright lights when climbing Mount Senganmori, it made me want to believe in UFOs even more. I wanted to witness it once in my 3 years of work,” Mr. Konno speak.
