Fact Check: Were Mystery ‘Pillars of Light’ Observed in Sky Over Japan?

Congress’ recent support for investigating unidentified sightings in American skies has led to excitement as well as some disappointing results for UFO enthusiasts across the country.

Last January, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said it was investigating a total of 510 unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP, sightings, more than triple the number recorded in its previous report, published in 2021. However, just over half of the new sightings were deemed “unremarkable,” giving some pause to the notion that they were signs of alien or extraterrestrial life.

That hasn’t altered how social media continues to respond to new pictures of what some believe are extraordinary or even alien phenomena. This week, a series of photos appeared to show mystery pillars or beams shining across a Japanese skyline.

The Claim

A Sunday post on X (formerly Twitter) by user @Banderafella included a photo of what appeared to be huge columns of light shooting out over the sky. The accompanying post read: “Japan sees pillars of light in the sky. Alien invasion?”

A Tuesday post on Instagram by user xtradusk included the same photo, along with a caption: “9 pillars of light appeared in the night sky above a coastal Japanese town. Thoughts on this? #lights #sky #japan #supernatural #scary #extraterrestrials“

The Facts

The Pentagon has said that many of the “unresolved” reports of unidentified objects in the sky have come down to a lack of good data, as well as technology incapable of accurately tracking unknown aerial objects at the time they were witnessed.

Officials say that with better data and improvements in technology, more concrete explanations for these mysterious objects will be possible.

In the case of the “pillars of light” drawing speculation about an “alien invasion,” the truth behind them has been far easier to establish. The photos were posted on May 11 by X user maashii_taiyo and have attracted 12.1 million views. Maashi told the Japanese website Hint-Pot that the phenomenon is caused by light emitted from fishing boats and refracting in the sky, and it is said to occur only under certain weather conditions every few years.

Examples of the pillars as seen from the sea can be seen in other photos posted on social media.

So while the effect may be ethereal or otherworldly, the explanation is not from beyond this world.

Earlier this month, social media users reported mysterious spiral UFO sightings in Ukraine and Finland as well as in cities in Arizona and California.

Some speculated that this could be an indication of visitors from beyond Earth. But Alpha Centauri, a Ukrainian nonprofit educational project, said on X that a mysterious white flash spotted over some regions of the country on Thursday evening was the exhaust spiral from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base.

“Mysterious objects in Ukrainian skies again! Over some regions of the country, the second stage of the Falcon 9 vehicle could be seen launching two WorldView Legion satellites,” Alpha Centauri wrote.

The Ruling

Needs Context

While the “pillars of light” were photographed in the sky over Japan, there is nothing mysterious about their origin. The lights come from fishing boats, and they refract in a display said to happen only once every few years.

FACT CHECK BY Newsweek’s Fact Check team