Sayama encounter

On the evening of 3 October 1978, Hideichi Amano, a 29-year-old snack-bar owner and ham-radio enthusiast, was parked on a hilltop above Sayama, Saitama Prefecture, with his two-year-old daughter Juri. He said a bright light filled the car, the engine and headlights failed, and his daughter lay on the back seat as if in a trance, and a small humanoid figure with a round face, pointed ears and glowing eyes appeared beside him for several minutes, pressing a pipe-like object to his temple and emitting high-pitched sounds. Afterwards his watch was found stopped at 9.57 p.m.

Amano reported the encounter to the police, who did not believe him. The story first reached the public through a Japanese television programme in November 1978, and the investigator Jun-Ichi Takanashi's account appeared in the MUFON UFO Journal and Flying Saucer Review in 1978–79. Later retellings, following the writer Jenny Randles, add that under hypnosis Amano described being given an object he took to be a bracelet for contacting the being.

The case rests on Amano's testimony alone; there is no physical evidence or independent witness.

Sources: URECAT case file · UFO Insight (secondary compilations)