Minoru Kihara

Minoru Kihara is a Liberal Democratic Party politician and the current Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan, the most senior member of the cabinet after the Prime Minister and the government's principal spokesperson at twice-daily press briefings. He has been a member of the House of Representatives since 2003. Before Chief Cabinet Secretary, Kihara served as Minister of Defence in 2023 to 2024, where his portfolio included the post-2020 Defence Ministry internal protocol for the recording and reporting of unidentified aerial phenomena by Self-Defense Forces personnel.

His role as Chief Cabinet Secretary places him as the daily public voice of the Japanese government, responsible for setting the government's on-record line on matters of cabinet interest. Cabinet press briefings in Tokyo run twice each working day and are the principal venue at which the cabinet engages with the political press corps on emerging policy questions.

On 11 May 2026, Kihara used his regular press briefing to confirm two things on the record. First, that Japan possesses its own UAP video footage. Second, that Tokyo is analysing the United States Department of War's Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE) corpus alongside allied partners. The confirmation came in response to a press question about the 8 May 2026 PURSUE tranche, which included at least two videos shot near or over Japanese-relevant airspace.

It is the first time a serving Japanese cabinet minister has formally placed Japanese UAP imagery into the public record. Kihara did not commit to a public release timeline. As of the date of this profile, no Japanese files have been released. The Japan Times carried the statement first. IBTimes UK followed with framing that placed the confirmation alongside the broader question of allied UAP coordination.