Person
Minoru Kihara
Also known as Kihara, Chief Cabinet Secretary Kihara, 木原稔
- Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan (from 2025); Minister of Defense (2023–2024)
- Member of the House of Representatives (National Diet)
Minoru Kihara is a member of Japan's House of Representatives for the Liberal Democratic Party. He was Minister of Defense from 2023 to 2024 and became Chief Cabinet Secretary, the government's chief spokesman, in 2025.
On 11 May 2026, asked at his press conference about the Pentagon's first release of UAP files, which included a 2023 U.S. infrared video taken near Japan, he said he had seen the published footage, that Japan gathers and analyses information on unidentifiable objects in the air with the United States, and that any Japanese disclosure would be judged case by case, including whether it would reveal Japan's intelligence-gathering capabilities.
Connected files
Videos
- Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara on the Pentagon's UAP files (press conference, 11 May 2026) (appears in)