NARRATOR: While the United States officially
denied investigating UAPs until 2017,
some nations had always been ahead in their approach
to the subject.
Leading the world in UAP research
is the South American country of Chile.
In 1997, the Chilean government officially
instructed air traffic control and military personnel
to create the Committee for the Study
of Anomalous Aerial Phenomena.
The Committee studies all reports of UAP activity
by commercial, military, and civilian pilots.
One of the most well-publicized was a shocking incident
that occurred in 2014, when Chilean naval officers,
flying along the coast of Santiago,
captured video of a UAP.
ALEJANDRO ROJAS: There was an incident
in 2014 where a military helicopter
got video of a strange object.
It kind of looked like a rocket with some sort of plume
behind it.
And they said they were at about 4,500 feet.
RICHARD DOLAN: They have nine minutes of fairly clear video
that exists on this.
The Chilean military studied it for two years,
and they were not able to identify this at all.
MAN: Chile, like many other South American countries,
seem to be far more open to the idea
that there are objects coming into our airspace.
I think one of the reasons why South American countries are
more open minded about the UFO and
the extraterrestrial question is because it is part
of their cultural heritage.
In fact, Peru and Bolivia, they're
treasure troves for the ancient astronaut theory.
The whole pre-Inca culture and even the Inca culture
spoke of these beings of light that descended from the sky.
And so these countries essentially
grew up with this intrinsic knowledge
of someone up in the sky.
Brazil has had a history of really dramatic UFO encounters.
Chile, I think Uruguay maybe as well,
but the whole world didn't pay much attention to it.
NARRATOR: In addition to South America,
now other parts of the world are also starting to disclose
information about UFOs.
Governments are openly investigating
encounters reported by both civilians
and military personnel.
But many researchers believe the most noteworthy country
to join this international effort is also
one of the most skeptical--
Japan.
In 2018, the Japanese government released an official statement
denying the existence of UFOs.
For the longest time in Japan, those
in charge, those at the top of the defense departments
have denied UFOs, showed a disinterest in UFOs--
basically a complete dismissal of the UFO topic completely.
GREG SULLIVAN: The Japanese government made a sudden press
release that said they would not recognize any UFO encounters
or extraterrestrial presence on Earth
or in the airspace of Japan.
I thought this was very strange, as we had already interviewed
two pilots who had several incidents and testimonies
that they gave us regarding various pilots'
encounters in the air and from the ground
over the years when they were active in the military.
NARRATOR: Mamoru Santo, a former wing commander
in the Japanese self-defense force,
said that he regularly heard stories
from other pilots as well as civilians about UAP sightings.
[speaking japanese]
INTERPRETER: Some people said, there's
something strange out there.
There were a lot of opportunities
to see inexplicable things, such as UFOs,
that were monitoring the sky and training in the sky.
And it was my subjective view that we should make a report
and organize these things as correct data.
But even when this happened, it was
only shared among colleagues and not reported publicly.
NARRATOR: According to Santo, numerous pilots
have reported highly unusual encounters
with what they described as cigar-shaped objects.
During one such incident, a student
in his fighter pilot course even lost control of his craft.
[speaking japanese]
INTERPRETER: He said, the aircraft started going crazy.
The alarm rang to indicate that something
was wrong with the machine.
I saw a cigar-shaped object flying about 1,500
meters high from east to west.
The anomaly continued until it disappeared.
NARRATOR: For years, pilots in the Japanese military
were instructed to remain silent about such incidents.
But in September 2020, Japan's decades-long policy
of secrecy and denial came to an end
when defense minister Taro Kono tasked
the Japanese self-defense forces to make
a visual recording of any encounter
with an unexplained craft.
Many believe this very public shift in policy
was prompted by a meeting held one month earlier
between Minister Kono and his US counterpart,
Defense Secretary Mark.
Esper.
NICK POPE: The Japanese, after this meeting,
gave a press conference.
And they said one of the topics that came up
was unidentified aerial phenomena.
And we talked about the need to cooperate on this.
That's a major development, I think,
when you have close allies like the US and Japan
openly speaking about the UFO issue
and agreeing to cooperate.
We've come so far in such a short amount of time.
RYAN SPRAGUE: The fact that Japan denied that there was
UFO activity happening in their country
and now they're establishing the Japanese Space Operation
Squadron says to me that there clearly is something going
on over the skies of Japan.
NARRATOR: Ancient astronaut theorists
suggest governments throughout the world
are finally beginning to acknowledge
that there may be objects in our skies
that are not of this Earth.