interview by Simon Sellars

Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 6 August 2003.

Japanese culture, it would seem, has always contained a rich vein of magic, mysticism and mind power running through its myths and legends. Is there any connection between this tradition and modern-day UFO sightings? According to Junichi Kato, Director of OUR-J (The Organisation of UFO Research, Japan), there is.

OUR-J’s web site documents some interesting parallels between traditional Japanese monsters and goblins, and the various types of “aliens” supposedly encountered by UFO abductees and others. But for me, what is even more fascinating is Mr Kato’s self-professed telepathic power, including an apparent ability to “call” UFOs virtually at will.

The OUR-J site documents the organisation’s regular “UFO watches”, where Kato and his colleagues telepathically call UFOs to hover over them. Incredibly, as the site documents, Japanese national TV has even televised these happenings. Kato has also appeared on many talk shows to air his views.

Junichi Kato is a friendly, affable person with an ability he wants to share. According to him, anyone can harness telepathy; anyone can contact a UFO. And he is quick to point out that, while this may seem crazy to my Western mind, it is not so unusual to the Japanese. As Kato explains, within the Japanese psyche is the concept of “occasional non-verbal communication with each other”, ingrained within all orders of social interaction. This is represented in the Japanese language. The word “ishin-den-shin”, for example, means “to convey one’s mind to another without any voice”, while “anmoku-no-ryoukai” means “tacit understanding”.

Thus, says Kato, it is easy for him to gather Japanese from all walks of life at an OUR-J UFO Watch, guiding them into a group mind for the express purpose of calling upon UFOs to appear. OUR-J has documented all types of UFOs at these watches, from fireballs to triangles, to the more familiar boomerang, cigar and saucer-shaped objects. But when pressed as to what is actually controlling these objects, or where they come from, Kato remains tight-lipped. Is it all in the mind, then?

Many thanks to Toshie Nakagawa for his translation of Mr Kato’s answers.

How did you become interested in UFO research?

When I was five, I saw a huge orange, oval-shaped object in the sky with my little brother and some friends. It was in my hometown of Akita City. The phenomenon has been attracting me ever since.

In your time with OUR-J, which case has stood out the most?

There are too many – each is special to us. However, I would like to note what I saw on April 30 this year. I was working in the OUR-J office, and it was 2:30 am. I finished up, left the office building and looked up at the sky with no intention. There, I saw a strange object at about a 40-degree altitude, slowly passing through the office buildings. It looked like a big shooting star, and there was no sound coming from it. The object was illuminated and gave off a red, pulsing light.

What other UFO groups operate in Japan? Do you share ideas and resources with them?

We at OUR-J do not have any relationship with other groups. In Japan, there are some so-called “contactee” or “channelling” groups, but they just worship “space visitors” for religious reasons and usually do not research or investigate the UFO phenomenon itself. They just want to believe in something that they have yet to see, without any research.

There is a self-proclaimed “UFO researcher” who occasionally appears on Japanese TV, often saying he has had contact with UFO occupants. And then there are a lot of people who say that UFO contactee and contact stories are all meaningless and nonsense. Conflicts of extremes: this is the recent situation of ufology in Japan.

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