In December, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura caused quite a stir with his bold statement that "UFOs definitely exist." In subsequent clarifications, the government claimed that there have been no confirmed sightings, but if a UFO was to appear, "fighter jets would be scrambled to attempt visual confirmation."
While it could be that Machimura was joking, it's also possible he was attempting to pave the way for belief in the existence of alien life — at present a taboo — to become an issue of public debate. For some prominent thinkers that day can't come soon enough.
Alfred Lambremont Webre, a Yale graduate, Fulbright scholar, lawyer, and judge on the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal, has spoken before the Diet on U.N. treaty issues. He is also the director of the Institute for Cooperation in Space. He helped found, and has written extensively about, an emerging field of discourse known as exopolitics.