UFO sightings should not be dismissed out of hand because they could, in fact, be surveillance drones or weapons, say Japanese lawmakers who launched a group on Thursday to probe the matter.

The nonpartisan group, which counts former defense ministers among its 80-plus members, will urge Japan to ramp up abilities to detect and analyze unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs), more commonly known as UFOs.

Although the phenomenon is often associated with little green men in the popular imagination, it has become a hot political topic in the United States.