URECAT -> Home

Cette page en français

URECAT - UFO Related Entities Catalog

OCTOBER 3, 1978, SAYAMA, SAITAMA, JAPAN, HIDEICHI AMANO AND HIS 2-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER:

Brief summary of the event and follow-up:

The best way for me to introduce the case for now is to quote from the investigator, Jun-Ichi Takanashi.

Jun-Ichi Takanashi was the MUFON representative in Japan, and chairman of the Modern Space Flight Association of Osaka, Japan. Here is what he wrote in november 1979, published in the MUFON journal and the FSR in 1978 and 1979.

One of the most popular television night show in Japan is "11 PM" (yes, it is pronounced literally in English "Eleven P.M") which is presented each night from Monday to Friday, from 11.15 p.m. to 0.25 a.m. From time to time this show features UFOs, the paranormal and the occult. On November 6, 1978, "11 PM" featured an account of an eerie encounter with a weird humanoid on the top of a mountain near Sayama City, which is in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. The unfortunate witness is a Mr. Hideichi Amano (29) who is an amateur radio operator, and the date of the incident was October 3, 1978.

The use of the description "unfortunate" will be appreciated as the account unfolds.

For his livelihood Mr. Amano runs a snack bar called "Juri" after his baby daughter, and on the night of October 3 had driven in his mobile unit car to the top of a mountain near Sayama City so that he could get unobstructed transmission and reception of radio wave, while communicating with his younger brother who lives far away in another part of Japan, in Yamanashi Prefecture. The conversation began at about 8.50 p.m., and after they had finished, Mr. Amano chatted around with a few of his local "ham" friends before he decided - as he had two year old Juri with him - that it was time to go back down the mountain. It was at that point that the interior of the car became very bright.

The surprised Mr. Amano turned swiftly to look at the back seats, above which he had fixed a fluorescent light to replace the normal car interior light. The interior was illuminated by a brightness tens of times more intense than he normally had from the fluorescent light. Puzzled, he stuck his head out of the side window and tried to locate the source of the light. He was flabbergasted to find that the ultra bright light was restricted to the interior only of the car, and that no light was leaking out from the car windows!

Turning his head back inside the car he was aghast to find that young Juri, who moments before had been standing on the driver's seat beside him, was now lying on the seat foaming at the mouth.

At almost the same instant he became aware of a strange, round orange-colored light illuminating the area of his stomach. Numbly he looked back along the path of the beam which was causing this; it was coming through the windscreen from a point in the dark night sky. It was at the moment he made this discovery that he sensed a metallic object being pressed against his right temple. The pressure increased and in a state of mounting fear he looked sideway, and saw a weird, unearthly creature standing there! A pipe-like device was projecting from its mouth, and it was this that was pressing against his head, communicating something incessantly to his brain by way of voiceless high-pitched noises which sounded for all the world like a high-speed play back of a recorded tape.

The eerie creature's face was round, but there appeared to be no neck. There was a depression on the forehead in the shape of a triangle, and the creature's ears were big and sharply pointed on the upper edges. It had two eyes, very small and motionless, which were glowing in a bluish-white like miniature lamps, while its mouth which was either projecting into a pipe, or holding the pipe (which was pressed against his temple), was more or less obscured from him as he strained to see sideways. He could see no sign of a nose in the creature's face.

Shocked and terrified, Mr. Amano wanted to flee from the place but when he tried to start the car the engine did not respond properly, and he found the headlights did not come on when he applied the switch. All the time the crazy "space message" continued to flow into his brain and he was immobilized, sensing all the time that his brain was gradually becoming more and more vague.

After an estimated four or five minutes of this continuing state of affairs, the figure of the creature began to dim out gradually until it had vanished; the round orange light on his stomach disappeared while the fluorescent interior light also returned to its normal brightness. Then, suddenly, all the things he had switched on began to work: the headlights came on, the car radio and stereo began to play. (Later Mr. Amano's watch was found to have stopped at 9.57 p.m.)

Realizing that things had returned to normal from the frightful situation that had pertained, Mr. Amano tried the starter again and, finding the engine now also performing normally, he drove away at once, frantically descending the mountain road. In retrospect he recalls that he drove from the place at top speed without even stopping to think about the condition of his little daughter until he reached the foothills. It was here that Juri stood up and said: "I want a drink of water, papa!"

As he continued his journey home the witness wondered whether or not he should report his experience to the police. In the end he decided to do so but, as he feared, they did not believe his story, and they made fun or him. So he drove on home and, having handed his daughter, who was now sleeping, to his wife - still serving in the snack bar - he crept into his bed complaining of a severe headache.

Having got wind of the Sayama incident, television researchers got to work, and they soon had Mr. Hideichi Amano's permission to put him in the hands of a professional hypnotist, Mr. Akio Morihe. Their purpose was to ascertain the validity of the occurrence, and to delve further into Mr. Amano's memory.

During the first period of regression, which was video-taped, and shown during the programme on the TV screens, many things hidden in his memory were said to have been retrieved. The most sensational of these was that he remembered having been asked by the creature to return to the same spot on the mountain top so that they could meet again. The date of the proposed return meeting was deleted, and so not mentioned in the programme. Thanks to the omission the hordes of curious would not flock to the place to spoil the meeting. However, viewers were told that if the meeting proved to be successful it would be shown in another programme in the series.

Towards the end of the first hypnotic session another seemingly important fact came to light. Pressed hard for more information by the hypnotist, Mr. Amano uttered a word which could be interpreted as "rosary," whereupon the experimenters inferred that although he did not remember it consciously, he had been given a glass rosary by the humanoid being, and although it was still kept hidden by him, unconsciously, about his person, when the day of the meeting came the being would return in front of the witness when he "rang" the rosary.

This was interesting information, but I for one doubt very much its authenticity because the hypnotist's insistence for more information was far too severe. I suspect the witness may have been forced to create this idea unconsciously. Furthermore I did not believe the creature would return again on the designated date, as I was afraid this may also have been a concoction of the witness's romantic mind.

Anyway, the witness said at the end of the session that although he did not remember what he said during the period of regression, he saw a "bracelet" instead of a "rosary" during the half-conscious period at the termination of the hypnotic interrogation. So the TV crew decided that the item he was given was some kind of crystalline bracelet, that it was hidden somewhere ahout him - although he could not remember where and when ultimately, he did remember, he would ring it and the humanoid would return and reveal further information to him. The TV crew would be secreted near the spot and would record the encounter on video tape to show the viewers. Although I suspect their enthusiastic plan will meet with no success, I still think the originally reported encounter is perhaps the strangest ever to have taken place in Japan.

After the television show, and following repeated long-distance phone calls which I made to him, I met Mr. Amano in his house and, together with one

Jun-Ichi Takanashi had taken care to join to his above report, an image of a sketch of the head of the alleged entity by the witness, and an image of the latter from the TV show:

I was unable to locate, unfortunately, any follow-up report.

The case, published in FSR, was cited by a large number of authors of ufology books, most of the time British. One of them manage to produce a number of deformations, then copied by others. The baby girl changed to a boy, a catalogue even claims "two witnesses of average age 29". Some tell that the witness had an "implant", the witness changes from radio ham to CB buff, and details of the course of the alleged observation sometimes vary. Some did not have the prudence of the Japanese investigator and mix the conscious story and the "recovered memories" from the use of the invalid method of hypnosis.

Basic information table:

Narratives:

[Ref. jt1:] JUN-ISHI TAKANASHI:

[Ref. js2:] JOHN SPENCER:

John Spencer indicates that the "Amano abduction" [sic] occurred on 3 October 1978 in Sayama City, Japan.

He says late in the evening, Hideichi Amano drove to a mountain top near his home to take advantage of the good reception on his CB radio he planned to use to talk to his brother. He was in the car with his daughter Juri, 2 years old.

At the top of the mountain as the radio was on the car was suddenly illuminated. Looking around, Amano saw no obvious source, but "the source had located Juri!" as he suddenly became aware she was lying across the rear seat of the car with an orange beam shining onto her.

Before he was able to react he felt a metal object pressed against his forehead and he looked up to see a strange hideous entity, short and with no nose.

He was paralyzed but there was some sort of communication as he felt the presence of visual images played into his mind, and he heard high-pitched screaming noise.

After an undetermined time the entity disappeared and the electrical circuits of the car and the radio came back to life.

In panic, Amano drove fast down the mountain, not even looking back at his daughter. At the bottom of the mountain he turned to her and she appeared unharmed, requesting only a drink of water.

He went to bed with a severe headache and then remembered the entities [sic] had planted something into his brain to alert them of their presence, and they promised to return.

[Ref. nb1:] ROGER BOAR AND NIGEL BLUNDELL:

The authors say that near Sayama City on October 3, 1978, Hideichi Amano , a radio ham, had driven to a hilltop near the city to transmit messages without interference, leaving his two-year-old son asleep in the back seat. But when he returned to the vehicle, he found the boy bathed in an eerie light and foaming at the mouth.

He tried to start the car, but nothing happened. Then he felt a metallic object being pressed against his forehead, and looked round to see a creature with a round face, large pointed ears, big round blue eyes and no neck. The object touching Amano's head was some kind of tube from the being's mouth.

For five minutes, strange space messages were passed telepathically through the tube into the man's mind; later he repeated them under hypnosis. Then the alien simply vanished, and everything Amano had switched on in his panic - car ignition, lights, radio - burst into life.

[Ref. jp1:] JOHN SPENCER:

John Spencer indicates that in Japan in October 1978, a case was reported with no UFO but similar to many abduction cases.

Hideichi Amano was parked in his car with his infant daughter when he observed that the interior of the car was "swallowed up" by a glowing light. His daughter appeared to have been knocked out and was probed by a beam of light directed at her body while Amano was assaulted by a short and slim being with strange eyes and a diminished nose. The being pressed a sort of probe to Amano's forehead and paralyzed him.

Amano said he saw kaleidoscope visual imagery, and he believed that the aliens planted a probe into him so that they can call him when needed.

John Spencer indicates that there might have been a missing time in the episode but that this was not examined.

[Ref. br1:] BRIAN RICHARDS:

[Ref. js1:] JOHN SCHUESSLER:

John Schuessler indicates that on October 3, 1978, in Sayama City, Japan, Hideichi Amano and his 2-year old daughter went to the top of the mountain so he could use his CB radio without interference. The car began to glow from a bright light and the motor and the radio failed. His daughter was bathed in an orange light. A small being pressed something against his temple and he was paralyzed. He believes he was given an implant.

John Schuessler lists as effects a beam of light, paralysis, an implant.

John Schuessler indicates "Abduction" as source.

[Ref. go1:] GODELIEVE VAN OVERMEIRE:

The Belgian ufologist indicates that on October 3, 1978 in Japan in Sayama-Saitama, the ham radio operator Hideichi Amano had moved by equipped car to the top of a mountain to make a radio transmission. The engine stopped and the vehicle was immobilized. There were odd lights in and out of his vehicle and at the windows he saw a humanoid creature. A kind of chattering came out by a "pipe" which it carried in the mouth. After a few minutes, "this vision disappears and the car was able to start again."

The ufologist wonder whether "this is the 'reasonable' version."

The source is indicated as "Janet and Colin BORD: 'Modern Mysteries of the World' - Guild Publishing London 1989, p. 340, 341.

Godelieve van Overmeire adds that Amamo had gone to the top of a hill to transmit radio messages without interferences, leaving his two-year-old son asleep on the back bench. While returning to the car, he found his little one surrounded by light with scum on the mouth. Taking the steering wheel to seek help, he did not manage to start. He then felt like a metal object that one pressed against his face, and by the window he saw a strange creature with a round head, large pointed ears, large round eyes of blue color, the head resting on the body without a neck. What touched the face of Amamo was a kind of tube outgoing from the entity's mouth. During five minutes of weird telepathic messages passed by means of the tube directly in the Amamo's memory. Later, under hypnosis, Amamo repeated them. Then the entity disappeared on the spot, and all became normal again.

The ufologist wonders whether this second account would be "the 'ufological' story" and indicates as its source Roger Boar and Nigel Blundel: "The World's greatest Ufo Mysteries", Hamlyn publisher 1995, p. 21.

[Ref. kb1:] KEITH BASTERFIELD:

Keith Basterfield indicates that on October 3, 1978 in Sayama City, Japan, Hideichi Amano, aged 29, and his 2-year-old daughter went to the top of the mountain so he could use his CB radio without interference. The car began to glow from a bright light and the motor and radio failed. His daughter was bathed in an orange light. A small being pressed something against his temple and he was paralysed. He believes he was given an implant.

Keith Basterfield indicates that the case was reported in 1988.

The sources are indicated as "Randles, J. 1988. Abduction. Robert Hale. London.pp159-160."

[Ref. ar1:] ALBERT ROSALES:

Albert Rosales indicates in his catalogue that in Sayama City, Japan, on October 3, 1978, late in the evening, the witness, a CB radio operator had driven to the top of a mountain in order to obtain better reception, he had taken his two-year-old daughter with him. Suddenly the interior of the car began to glow, looking out he sees nothing, and then looking back at his daughter he sees her lying on the seat with an orange beam of light shining on her stomach. He then feels a metal object pressing against his right temple. He looks up and comes face to face with a strange being under five-foot tall with no nose. He then hears high-pitched noises and his heads is filled with images and pictures. He is totally paralyzed. An unknown amount of time passes and the glow fades and the being disappears. The witness feels that something has been implanted into him and goes to bed that night with a pounding headache.

Albert Rosales indicates that the source is "Jenny Randles, Abduction."

[Ref. jo1:] JOHN S. SMYTH:

[Ref. el1:] ERIC LORD:

The author says that in the evening of October 3, 1978. Hideichi Amano of Sayama City, Japan, had driven to a mountain top with his 2 years old daughter to set his radio ham equipment. As he was about to drive back after his transmission was completed the inside of the car suddenly lit brilliantly as if a fluorescent tube was in it.

Amano horrified saw that his daughter was lying on the seat besides him apparently unconscious and foaming at the mouth.

At that same moment an orange beam of light was directed at him, seeming to come from a source in the sky, and he felt something metallic pressed against his right temple.

He then saw outside the car a terrifying humanoid with a round head, motionless eyes glowing with a blueish light, no nose, sharply pointed ears, and a triangular depression on the forehead.

Its mouth was clamped around a kind of pipe, it's other end was pressing on Amano's temple. The pipe emitted an incessant babble "like a tape played too fast".

Amano found it difficult to move and became "vague". Terrified, he tried to start the car to get away but it did not start.

After what seemed to be about 5 minutes, the created faded and vanished and all was back to normal. The car did start and Amano sped back hill in shock and confusion.

His daughter was also in confusion as she turned to him to ask for water.

Amano tried to report to the police but they laughed at him.

Reaching home he went to bed with a severe headache.

Investigator Junichi Takahashi interviewed him and concluded that he told the truth and that the experience was "one of the strangest ever to have taken place in Japan."

The source is indicated as Brookesmith ed., page 64, 1984.

[Ref. jb1:] JEROME BEAU:

[Ref. cj1:] "THE COSMIC JOKERS" WEBSITE:

The website indicates that a CE3 with a robot, no craft seen, occurred at 8:30 pm, October, 3, 1978 in Sayana City, Japan.

The website says that Japanese being obsessed with robots, it is fitting that one of the few CE3 reports from Japan, later dubbed by ufologist Jun-Ichi Takanashi "the strangest ever to have taken place in Japan", should involve one.

It says a Sayana City cafe owner and keen radio ham named Hideichi Amano had driven to the summit of a local mountain to radio his brother. With him was his 2-yr-old daughter, Juri. He had just terminated his conversation and was about to drive home when the interior fluorescent light began to glow with a blinding intensity. Then Juri collapsed, foaming at the mouth.

A spherical glowing mass appeared overhead and fired a beam of orange light into the car. Amano felt something metallic pressing against his temples, and then realized that a sinister robotic humanoid was standing beside the vehicle.

The robot had an oval chinless head with exaggeratedly pointed ears and glowing blue eyes. In place of a mouth was a T-shaped pipe, which it was pressing to Amano's forehead. From the pipe came an incessant electronic babble, as though a tape were being played too fast.

Amano repeatedly tried to start the car, but the starter motor was dead. Paralyzed by fear, he sat rooted to the spot.

A series of bizarre images flashed through his mind, as though the robot was trying to communicate with him. Finally the entity slowly dematerialized and the car came back to life.

Amano drove down the mountain in a blind panic then pulled over to check on his daughter's condition. To his relief, she was back on her feet and asking for a drink of water.

A Japanese television company making a UFO documentary filmed Amano undergoing hypnotic regression. He recalled that the entity had instructed him to return to the mountain on a certain date. The footage was never broadcast, as the producers feared that Sayana City would be overrun by hoards of visitors seeking the robot.

Whether or not he kept the appointment himself, Amano reported no subsequent encounters.

Sources are indicated as "Orbis Publishing: The Paranormal Files, pp129-131" and "John Spencer: UFOs: The Definitive Casebook, p134."

[Ref. ud1:] "UFODNA" WEBSITE:

The website indicates that on 3 October 1978 at 21:37 in Sayama City, Japan, "Car on mountain top suddenly illuminated. Orange beam on 2-yr-old daughter's stomach. Short being (Grey?) with no obvious nose pressed metal against his forehead, telepathy, high-pitched noise, electromagnetic effect".

And: "An abduction of a witness was reported. Electromagnetic and physiological effects were noted."

And: "One orange beam was observed by two male witnesses, typical age 29, at a mountain for ten minutes (Amano, H). A high-pitched sound was heard. One grey being was seen."

The website says the Hynek classification of the case is "CE4: Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind (Abductions)".

The sources are indicated as Webb, David, HUMCAT: Catalogue of Humanoid Reports"; "SATCU, Xenolog, Timaru ISBN:0-8092-3121-2"; "Spencer, John Wallace, World Atlas of UFOs, Smithmark, New York, 1992, ISBN:0-8317-9498-4".

[Ref. no1:] "NOUFORS" WEBSITE:

This website publishes this sketch, captioned "Samaya, Japan, October 3, 1978".

Points to consider:

I certainly share the investigator's view that this looks like the strangest case from Japan.

The reported being, what it did, have little to do with "contactee" fables, it does not seem to be a simple copy of how such encounters are supposed to go.

On the other end, it remains a single witness case, without hard evidence.

Of course I totally share the investigator's rejection of the "recovered memories" through hypnosis. A rosary? A rendez-vous? Here we see again how the straightforward, non-absurd, conscious account can be changed into a nonsensical, seemingly "absurd", story when hypnosis is used.

List of issues:

Evaluation:

Extraterrestrial visitors or invention.

Sources references:

* = Source I checked.
? = Source I am told about but could not check yet. Help appreciated.

• [---] ? TV show 11 P.M., Japan, November 6, 1978.
• [jt1] ? "Humanoid Encounter on Japanese Mountaintop", report by Jun-Ichi Takanashi, MUFON Director for Japan, in the ufology magazin MUFON UFO Journal, Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), USA, #132, pp 7-8. November / December 1978.
• [jt1] ? "An Eerie Humanoid In Saitama", report by Jun-Ishi Takanashi, in the ufology magazine Flying Saucer Review (FSR), U-K., Volume 24, #6, April 1979.
• [---] ? "HUMCAT: Catalogue of Humanoid Reports", compiled by David F. Webb and Ted Bloecher, CUFOS, USA, circa 1978.
• [---] ? Ufology bulletin Xenolog, SATCU, New-Zealand.
• [---] ? "World's Greatest Ufo Mysteries", book by Nigel Blundell, Exeter publishers, U-K., page 21, 1985.
• [---] ? "Abduction", book by Jenny Randles, Hale publisher, U-K., 1988.
• [---] ? "Modern Mysteries of the World", book by Janet et Colin Bord, Guild Publishing, U-K., pp 340-341, 1989.
• [nb1] * "The World's Greatest UFO Mysteries", book by Roger Boar and Nigel Blundell, Berkley Publishing Group, U-K., pp20-21, 1990.
• [jp1] * "The UFO Encyclopedia", book by John Spencer, Headline Books publisher, U-K., page 17, 1991.
• [---] ? "UFOs: The Definitive Casebook", book by John Spencer, Hamlyn publishers, USA, page 134, 1991.
• [---] ? "The Paranormal Files", Orbis Publishing, pp129-131.
• [js2] * "World Atlas of UFOs Sightings, Abductions and Close Encounters", book by John Spencer, Smithmark publishers, U-K., page 134, 1992.
• [---] ? "The World's Greatest Ufo Mysteries", book by Roger Boar and Nigel Blundel, Hamlyn publisher, U-K., page 21, 1995.
• [br1] * "A Lile in A'Lie'ns, Perhaps, But What (On Earth) Is Going On!?", article by Brian Richards, in Journal of Alternative Realities, Australia, November 1996.
• [---] ? "Alien Contact: The First Fifty years", book by Jenny Randles, Barnes & Noble publishers, U-K., page 90, 1997.
• [js1] * "UFO-Related Human Physiological Effects", article by John F. Schuessler, available at www.scientificexploration.org/jse/articles/ufo_reports/schuessler/16.html
• [go1] * "Chronologie OVNI", web page by Godelieve Van Overmeire, Belgium, circa 1999, at users.skynet.be/sky84985/chron22.html
• [kb1] * "A Representative Catalogue of UFO Cases Which Involve Paralysis - Part 2", compiled by Keith Basterfield, Australia, 2002.
• [ar1] * "1978 Humanoid Reports", compiled by Albert Rosales, circa 2007, at www.ufoinfo.com/humanoid/humanoid1978.shtml
• [jo1] * "Some Communications With and Quotes From Extra Terrestrials", electronic text by John S. Smyth, 18 August 2008, at www.ufor.asn.au/pages/investigations/sightings/CommunicationsWithExtraterrestials.pdf
• [el1] * "Science, Mind and Paranormal Experience", book by Eric Lord, Lulu.com publisher, page 121, 2009.
• [jb1] * "Hideichi Amano", web page by Jérôme Beau, RR0 website, France, circa 2010, at rr0.org/personne/a/AmanoHideichi/index.html
• [cj1] * "The Robot on top of the Mountain", web page by the website The cosmic Jokers, circa 2010, at graylien.110mb.com/amano.html
• [br1] * "A Lile in A'Lie'ns, Perhaps, But What (On Earth) Is Going On!?", web article by Brian Richards, Australia, circa 2010, at www.auforn.com/Brian_Richards_1.htm
• [ud1] * "3 Oct 1978 - Sayama City, Japan", web page by the UFOdna website, circa 2010, at thecid.com/ufo/uf00/uf5/005129.htm
• [no1] * "UFO Occupants", web page on the NOUFORS website, Canada, not dated, found 2012, at www.noufors.com/ufo_occupants.html

Document history:

Authoring

Changes history

Feedback  |  Top  |  Back  |  Forward  |  Map  |  List |  Home

This page was last updated on February 7, 20121