Many residents living around the area, especially near the 462m high Mount Senganmori, believe it to be a UFO hotspot. Occurrences of luminous flying objects continuously over the past 4 decades near this mountain are frequently reported. There are even some people who think that Mount Senganmori has a cone shape which is an ancient pyramid surrounded by large stone blocks.
Through this connection, Iinomachi displays many UFO-related items at the museum and organizes events that attract enthusiasts of extraterrestrial affairs. According to the Fukushima government, the focus here is on looking at the UFO issue from a “more romantic” perspective and building a new future for Iinomachi.
Therefore, visitors who visit Iinomachi will often be able to see images of alien life everywhere from UFO-shaped street lights to alien statues in many buildings such as bus stops.
This place even has a UFO museum built halfway up the mountain in 1992, which displays about 3,000 books, photos and other documents related to aliens and UFOs. According to SCMP, some of it was donated by the late UFO researcher Kinichi Arai. Every year, this museum welcomes about 30,000 visitors from inside and outside the province to visit every year, becoming a famous tourist attraction.
There is also a UFO festival in which participants dress up in alien costumes to participate in parades and competitions. This festival was first held in 2022 to mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the UFO museum.
However, Iinomachi’s connection to UFOs doesn’t just end with sights, museums, or festivals. On June 24, 2021, Iinomachi was selected as the site of the establishment of the International UFO Institute – which collects and disseminates reports of UFO sightings around the world. This annual date is also chosen as World UFO Day because it is also the first day a UFO sighting was reported by US civilian pilot Kenneth Arnold in Washington state in 1947.
Anyone with a belief in UFOs can become a member of the International UFO Institute for a fee of $74 per year. Elite members, i.e. those who sign up for 3 years for $149 or $223, will receive a special t-shirt and locally brewed sake. Also, all members can attend UFO related events.
According to the group, global interest in UFOs began to increase again after the US Department of Defense in 2020 released video footage of unidentified aerial phenomena recorded in 2004 and 2015. In 2021, the US government continues to publish a preliminary assessment of UFOs, focusing on more than 140 reports collected since 2004 from military pilots and other sources.
