Japan's government focuses on flying saucers

Dec 20, 2007, 12:35 GMT

Tokyo - The Japanese government has recently been looking into the idea of flying saucers, Defence Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Thursday at a press conference in Tokyo.

'There are no grounds that allow us to say definitively that they do not exist,' Ishiba said.

The response was prompted by an opposition politician who asked the government formally whether Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) existed.

The question forced the government to adopt an official position on UFOs.

The existence of UFOs had not been confirmed and there were no plans for what to do if aliens landed, the minister said.

Ishiba seems to have given the matter some thought: 'If Godzilla comes, typically it would require mobilization (of Self-Defence Force troops) for disaster relief,' he told reporters.

If a UFO were to violate Japanese air space, the question of a legal basis for mobilizing the troops would not be so simple, he said.

It would hardly be an act of defence if they said, 'You there on Earth, let's be friends,' Ishiba said.

Government spokesman Nobutaka Machimura raised a laugh among the reporters earlier when he said that he personally believed that UFOs 'definitely' existed.

According to Japan's post-war constitution, the country's military is only allowed to engage in defensive activities.