The Boys Who Claimed They Captured a Palm-Sized UFO in Japan (1972) — Kera Incident (Part 4/10)

Mystery Japan Presents: The Unexplained Japan Files Case File #001 — The Kera Incident (Part 4)

They tried everything to keep the palm-sized “UFO” from vanishing — marks on the rim, sealed bags, even submerging it in water. Then came the final night: double-bagged, tied to a boy’s hand with a cross-knot — still gone, without a tear or broken knot. Part 4 follows the moment the boys realize they need adults — and the moment the case slips out of their hands for good.

Previously (Part 3): The object reportedly began reacting — buzzing, glowing, briefly cracking open — then vanishing and reappearing again and again.→ Read Part 3 here:

Map of the Kera Incident’s estimated sighting and capture locations. Created from 1975 aerial imagery by the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (west = toward central Kochi City). Source: GSI Japan (1975).

1. The Boys Decide to Bring It to Adults

Up to this point, the boys claimed they had secured a small flying object, measured it, tried to pry it open — and then watched it do something far stranger: vanish and reappear.

They said it happened repeatedly. Even after marking the rim, sealing it in bags, and keeping watch, the same pattern returned — gone one moment, back the next.

Eventually, the situation began to feel bigger than a private mystery. Realizing they couldn’t carry it alone, the boys made a decision: they would show the object to adults and ask for guidance.

2. A Science-Minded Father’s Verdict

The first to bring the object to an adult, according to the record, was Keiko Fujimoto. He took it home and showed it to his parents.

The reaction, however, was cool — almost dismissive.

“What are you going to do with junk like that?”

His mother wasn’t interested. And his father, it seems, was already leaning the same way.

Fujimoto’s father, Mutsuo Fujimoto, is described in some sources as a teacher at Kochi Nishi High School (though accounts differ on his exact post, with some placing him at a local science education center). He tested the object by striking it with a paperweight — and the sound that rang back was hard and metallic, like brass.

Even so, his conclusion didn’t budge.

“This is a casting mold used to make a tobacco tray.”

3. The First Wall: “No One Will Believe Us”

No matter how strongly the boys insisted it was a “mini UFO,” the adults around them treated it as a childish prank — or a piece of ordinary scrap. Episode 4 begins with that gap in temperature: what the boys thought they had, and what the grown-ups were prepared to accept.

4. “Let’s Show the UFO Around Kochi City”

By around the fourth “capture,” the boys may have started to feel something almost like familiarity toward the object — like dealing with an untrainable pet that keeps slipping the leash.

One day, they decided to ride into Kochi City to go shopping. And, according to the account, someone said it half-jokingly:

“Alright. Let’s give the UFO a tour of Kochi.”

They placed the object in a backpack and pedaled into town. But this time, they also tried to make sure it wouldn’t “get away.”

5. The “Water Containment” Hypothesis

The boys had formed a working theory:

“It never shows up on rainy days. Maybe it doesn’t like water.”

So they filled a plastic bag with water and submerged the object inside it. They sealed the bag tightly with wire, then put it into the backpack — apparently hoping that keeping it underwater would weaken it, or at least prevent it from vanishing.

But on the way, the bag began to leak. Water seeped through the backpack and soaked whoever was carrying it, forcing them to take turns wearing the bag.

By the time they arrived, they were drenched — so wet, they later said, they were close to catching a cold.

6. The Backpack Suddenly Felt Lighter

On the way back to the Mori house after their shopping trip, the boy carrying the backpack felt something off.

It was… light.

A jolt of panic hit.

“Oh no. It’s getting away.”

He yanked the backpack off and checked inside. Just as he feared, the object was gone.

The strange part was what came next. The knot at the mouth of the backpack was still tied. The wire sealing the plastic bag inside was still in place.

The “seal” hadn’t been broken — yet the contents were missing.

Once again, the boys found themselves staring at the same contradiction.

A Few Days Later — On the Bank of the Kera River

Several days later, the supposedly vanished object turned up again — this time on the embankment of the Kera River, according to the account.

They brought it back and checked the markings.

The silver enamel Mori had painted on the rim. The permanent-ink mark Kiyomitsu Ohara had added.

Both were still there.

“It’s the same one…”

An object that disappears, reappears somewhere else, and returns again — bearing the same marks. The boys looked at one another, unsettled, struggling to put the feeling into words.

7. The Final Night — September 22, 1972

On the night of September 22, 1972, the boys said they captured the object for the fifth time — this time in the rice fields again. From there, they headed to the home of Ikuo Higashiyama.

On the way, they talked it over. Their next move, they decided, would be to show it to an adult who might take them seriously — their homeroom teacher, Junko Muraoka, who also taught science. But first, they planned to stop at Ikuo’s house to calm down and regroup.

The problem was the same fear that had followed them all along: What if it vanishes again?

8. Double Bags, Unbreakable Knots

This time, they tried to “contain” it as securely as they could.

They placed the object into a plastic bag filled with water and tied the opening tight. Then they put that bag inside a second plastic bag — double-wrapping it — and tied that one shut as well.

Still not satisfied, Yasuo Mori reportedly bound the double-bagged bundle in a tight cross pattern using a vinyl-coated electrical cord. He kept one hand gripping the bundle and the other holding it steady the entire time, as if to prevent even the slightest chance of it slipping free during the ride.

Then they set off by bicycle in a small convoy — three bikes in a line. Ikuo rode in front, followed by Keiko Fujimoto. Yasuo rode behind him, and Hiroshi Mori brought up the rear.

9. And Then It Never Appeared Again

Not long after they left Keiko’s house, something happened that the boys would later describe in a very specific way. Yasuo Mori felt a sudden jolt in his right hand — as if it were being yanked sharply up and to the side. In his telling, it was like something inside the bundle “jumped” and tried to burst free.

In the same instant, Yasuo lost his balance and tumbled off the rear rack of the bicycle.

The boys stopped immediately and checked the double-bagged package that had been tied to his right hand.

It was empty.

What made the scene feel almost unnatural was how clean it looked. The plastic bags weren’t torn. The tight, cross-shaped binding made with the electrical cord was still intact. And yet the contents were gone — as if they had simply vanished.

The boys seem to have reasoned that Yasuo’s fall was caused by the shock of the object “leaping” out of the bundle. But whether that interpretation holds or not, the reported fact in their account is the same: the object was no longer there.

Near Route 243 in Kochi City, around the Nabeshima bicycle shop (Google Maps Street View) — often cited as the general area where the boys said they lost the “mini UFO” for the last time.

[embed]Street View · Google Maps Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.maps.app.goo.gl

Approximate location where the boys said they lost sight of the “mini UFO” for the last time (Google Maps Street View; location estimated from available records).

[embed]Street View · Google Maps Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.maps.app.goo.gl

10. A Dead End — But Not the End

The boys even considered going to the police. In the end, they didn’t.

Who would take them seriously if they said, “We picked up a tiny UFO in a rice field”? They expected to be dismissed, called liars, laughed at — and they had reasons to think so.

In fact, they had already tried speaking to an adult. They reportedly approached a junior high science (chemistry) teacher, only to find that the story wasn’t taken seriously.

And the boys understood the problem. From the outside — from the standpoint of common sense — the entire claim sounds absurd. Yet for them it wasn’t just a story. They insisted they had held the object, weighed it, measured it. Whatever it was, the sensation of it being physically “there” felt impossible to shake.

Still, the adults around them treated it as a prank. The nine boys felt cornered, with nowhere left to take the story. In their minds, the case had reached a dead end.

…But luck — or something — had not quite abandoned them.

Before long, the Kera Incident reached comet hunters Tsutomu Seki and Koichi Ike — and from there, the story began to spread nationwide through television and other media.

In Part 5, we’ll follow the moment the boys’ closed, private experience connects to the outside world — and becomes a public “case file.”

Next: Case File #001 — **Kera Incident (Part 5/10)**

[embed]The Boys Who Claimed They Captured a Palm-Sized UFO in Japan (1972) — Kera Incident (Part 5/6) Mystery Japan Presents: The Unexplained Japan Files Case File #001 — The Kera Incident (Part 5)medium.otakupapa.net

Series stance: This project does not argue for belief or debunking. I organize sources and testimony (including contradictions) and leave conclusions to the reader.

Selected sources include: MYSTERY PHOTONICLE (May 2016) and Junichi Yaoi, Junichi Yaoi’s Complete UFO Collection, among others.

Author Profile

Haruto Rein, Ph.D. (羅院春人) Former quantum physicist turned independent writer and researcher. He writes Mystery Japan, a case-file series on Japan’s recorded anomalies — built from reports, documents, and testimony, with facts separated from inference and conclusions left to the reader. He also authored ToEST (Shinto philosophy in dialogue) and writes the Shinto Girl series on consciousness and “Spiritual Science.”

© 2025–2026 Mystery Japan Project. Written by Haruto Rein, Ph.D. (羅院春人). All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution is prohibited.