Minoru Kihara is a Japanese Defense Minister. In 2024, under his leadership, the Japanese Defense Ministry shifted posture to treat unidentified aerial objects as security concerns, emphasizing the need to analyze and respond to incursions in Japanese airspace — a significant doctrinal change in japan’s UAP policy.
This shift preceded yoshiharu-asakawa’s May 2025 proposal and the japan-uap-parliamentary-group’s March 2026 proposal (src-japan-uap-strategy-proposal-2026-03).