Yoshiharu Asakawa
PersonPoliticianYoshiharu Asakawa
PersonPoliticianYoshiharu Asakawa is a Japan Innovation Party politician and former lower-house member who pressed the Diet on UFOs and helped found its cross-party UAP caucus.
Yoshiharu Asakawa is a Japan Innovation Party politician and former lower-house member who pressed the Diet on UFOs and helped found its cross-party UAP caucus.
Yoshiharu Asakawa is a Japanese politician of Nippon Ishin no Kai, the Japan Innovation Party, who served one term in the House of Representatives from 2021 to 2024. During that term he became known for repeatedly raising unidentified flying objects in Diet committees, and he was a founding member of the cross-party Japanese Parliamentary UAP Caucus, where he now serves as assistant to the chair, former defense minister Yasukazu Hamada.
Asakawa was born on February 23, 1968, and grew up in Kanazawa Ward, Yokohama. After graduating from Nihon University's law faculty he joined the Bank of Yokohama, while taking part in Kenichi Ohmae's reform movement Heisei Ishin no Kai and working on campaigns for House of Representatives member Kenichiro Sato. In 2003 he won a seat on the Yokohama City Council for Isogo Ward and left the bank, but he lost four later council races between 2007 and 2019 under shifting affiliations. In 2021 he ran for the lower house in Kanagawa's 1st district; he lost the district race to Go Shinohara of the Constitutional Democratic Party but took the last proportional seat in the Minami-Kanto block.
In the Diet he sat on the Cabinet Committee and later the Security Committee. In February 2022 he asked the chairman of the National Public Safety Commission whether he had ever seen one, an exchange the weekly Shukan Bunshun covered, and on April 8 he devoted a Cabinet Committee session to Japan's crisis-management and disclosure response to the unidentified aerial phenomena the U.S. government had acknowledged, noting that the Diet had not discussed them in two years. He told the committee that about 40 years earlier he and several others had seen an object through a telescope finder that was neither a plane nor a helicopter. In November 2023 he said some in his own party had urged him to stop, and stressed that his concern was possible threats to national defense, not alien spacecraft.
When the caucus launched on June 6, 2024, with more than 80 members, AFP described Asakawa as a pivotal member. He said UFOs had long been seen in Japan as "an occult matter that has nothing to do with politics," and warned that if they proved to be "cutting-edge secret weapons or spying drones in disguise, they can pose a significant threat to our nation's security." He lost his seat in the October 2024 election, taking 12.92 percent in his district, and failed again in February 2026, but he has remained assistant to the caucus chair and one of its main public voices.
In 2026 Asakawa became the caucus's main link to the American disclosure movement. He and other caucus officers were interviewed in Tokyo by Jesse Michels, whom he then questioned on a NicoNico News special, and he argued in Japanese posts that UFOs are also a human-rights issue because people who reported sightings faced discrimination. On September 16 he, Hamada and U.S. Representative Eric Burlison published a joint op-ed in The Debrief urging legislators in allied democracies to cooperate on UAP oversight. His committee questioning and his work in founding the caucus helped bring UFOs before Japan's defense ministers as a question of national security rather than tabloid curiosity.
[Retweeted] Can Japan disclose what it knows about UFOs without Washington’s approval? Jesse Michels asks Yoshiharu Asakawa whether the United States should have a say in what Japan tells its own citizens. Asakawa responds with a blunt assessment of American influence and describes discussions over the scope of disclosure. “What I think is that Japan is, in name only, independent.” “I feel that Japan is under American control, and that it is largely driven by American interests.” Asakawa then...
Collusion with allies on UFO secrecy is sabotaging global efforts for transparency. Are they fearful of the collective judgement of society? https://t.co/honP [Quoted] Can Japan disclose what it knows about UFOs without Washington’s approval? Jesse Michels asks Yoshiharu Asakawa whether the United States should have a say in what Japan tells its own citizens. Asakawa responds with a blunt assessment of American influence and describes discussions over the scope of disclosure. “What I think is...
Can Japan disclose what it knows about UFOs without Washington’s approval? Jesse Michels asks Yoshiharu Asakawa whether the United States should have a say in what Japan tells its own citizens. Asakawa responds with a blunt assessment of American influence and describes discussions over the scope of disclosure. “What I think is that Japan is, in name only, independent.” “I feel that Japan is under American control, and that it is largely driven by American interests.” Asakawa then recounts a...
[Retweeted] 【「灯台下暗し」日本の防衛大臣がUFOについてついに沈黙を破る】 ジェシー・マイケルズのYouTubeが一般公開されました。今春ほぼ1ヶ月間日本取材に対応しました。 浜田靖一会長、遠藤敬副会長、美延映夫事務局長(@minobeteruo )、早坂あつし元衆議院議員、早坂ちあき仙台市議、各議員事務所のスタッフの皆様、第2回以降に出演されている皆様(まだ公表出来ません)、日本在住のジェシー代理人ラムジーと奥様、通訳でUFOに詳しい菊地了さん、ニコニコの七尾功政治プロデューサー、浅川義治サポーターズの皆さま、ロケ現場でご協力いただいた皆様、感謝いたします。 是非ご覧ください。音声日本語を選択してください。 映像は、作られたものは正確には反映されていません。テレビの再現映像と同じです。 ただストーリー構成が、このような出来になってくるとは思いもしませんでした。 ジェシーどうもありがとう！ 再来日待ってます！ Japan’s Defense Minister BREAKS SILENCE On UFOs https://t.co/ixUqkdWAKA @YouTub...
[Retweeted] 【「灯台下暗し」日本の防衛大臣がUFOについてついに沈黙を破る】 ジェシー・マイケルズのYouTubeが一般公開されました。今春ほぼ1ヶ月間日本取材に対応しました。 浜田靖一会長、遠藤敬副会長、美延映夫事務局長(@minobeteruo )、早坂あつし元衆議院議員、早坂ちあき仙台市議、各議員事務所のスタッフの皆様、第2回以降に出演されている皆様(まだ公表出来ません)、日本在住のジェシー代理人ラムジーと奥様、通訳でUFOに詳しい菊地了さん、ニコニコの七尾功政治プロデューサー、浅川義治サポーターズの皆さま、ロケ現場でご協力いただいた皆様、感謝いたします。 是非ご覧ください。音声日本語を選択してください。 映像は、作られたものは正確には反映されていません。テレビの再現映像と同じです。 ただストーリー構成が、このような出来になってくるとは思いもしませんでした。 ジェシーどうもありがとう！ 再来日待ってます！ Japan’s Defense Minister BREAKS SILENCE On UFOs https://t.co/ixUqkdWAKA @YouTub...
Former Japanese lawmaker says he discovered an unexplained mark behind his ear after an alleged alien encounter 👇 https://t.co/49cUXB9MUo
[Retweeted] “Some people say they can ride in a UFO with their own consciousness.” Former Japanese lawmaker Yoshiharu Asakawa recounts a local karaoke bar owner’s account of disappearing and finding herself aboard a craft. 👇 https://t.co/CspKaIgQ12
“Some people say they can ride in a UFO with their own consciousness.” Former Japanese lawmaker Yoshiharu Asakawa recounts a local karaoke bar owner’s account of disappearing and finding herself aboard a craft. 👇 https://t.co/CspKaIgQ12
Probed ingest of: Japan’s Defense Minister: “We Can’t Rule Out ALIENS!”
[Retweeted] Today, former Japanese Defense minister Yasukazu Hamada breaks his silence on UFOs. In fact, he now chairs the UAP caucus in Japan’s Parliament. So much of his post-cabinet life is dedicated to the topic. Former Congressman Yoshiharu Asakawa (@asakawayosiharu) also goes on record https://t.co/dXR6GTDDsN
