Last week, the Pentagon launched an official website for current or former service members, and eventually regular people, to submit suspected alien sightings. Named the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, or AARO, it marked the latest development in a wave of UFOria. Now, the Department of Defense has revealed some of its initial revelations.

Most notably, the website has helped assemble a map of “hotspots” across the world, where unidentified aerial phenomena (aka UAPs, formerly known as UFOs) are most frequently sighted. Surprisingly – to anyone who suspected that UAPs were suspiciously concentrated over US and UK military bases – Japan has actually recorded the largest amount, according to data gathered between 1996 and 2023.

The 27 years of data have been made public for the first time via an AARO report, which contains a map visualising the reported hotspots. According to the map, sightings have been concentrated around western and southern Japan, seemingly correlating with the atomic bomb sites of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Other areas that have spotted a disproportionate amount of UAPs include the south-eastern United States, as well as an area of the Middle East that includes Iraq and Syria. Of course, it’s worth keeping in mind who’s publishing this data (the US Department of Defense) and what ulterior motives they might have for stoking speculation about alien sightings in these regions.

The prevalence of UAPs over Japan doesn’t come as a complete surprise, though the country has been reluctant to share data with the rest of the world in the past. Numerous supposed alien sightings in Japan’s Fukushima region – both decades before and after its infamous nuclear disaster in 2011 – have led to a small town, Iinomachi, being nicknamed “UFO town” and drawing in visitors from across the world. In fact, sightings date all the way back to the late Edo period, when (in 1803) an alien vessel allegedly washed ashore in the Hitachi Province.

On the other hand, Japanese astronomers have also been working to get in touch with aliens in deep space for decades, transmitting messages about humanity and inviting extraterrestrial intelligence to make contact. Unfortunately, the aliens are yet to respond.

Currently, it’s unclear how the new findings about the distribution of global UAP sightings will actually contribute to any research breakthroughs, or if they are, in fact, just another government psy-op. Needless to say, we’ll be here to let you know if and when any new alien mysteries are uncovered. In the meantime, take a look at the global map below.