Rewrite and translate this title Experts say the US government is hiding UFOs – so where are all the aliens? to Japanese between 50 and 60 characters. Do not include any introductory or extra text; return only the title in Japanese.

The reelection of Donald Trump means a lot of things for America and beyond, most of them bad. Some space fans have dared to dream, however, about a sci-fi silver lining. Could this be the presidential term, they ask, where the existence of extraterrestrial aliens is finally confirmed, once and for all?

On Wednesday (November 13) a hearing with members of US congress, titled Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth, seemed to support this possibility. Following 2023’s landmark hearing with whistleblower David Grusch, politicians heard from four experts in the field of UFOs or UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomena) including a US Navy officer, a former Department of Defence official, a member of NASA’s UAP Independent Study Team, and a journalist. Between them, they made some pretty wild claims about their experiences with UAPs, including anecdotes about flying discs and white orbs emerging from the ocean.

In a written testimony, US Navy rear admiral Tim Gallaudet claimed that he’s known about UAPs for years, saying: “Confirmation that UAPs are interacting with humanity came for me in January 2015.” Specifically, he related a training exercise that was disrupted by an “unidentified object exhibiting flight and structural characteristics unlike anything in our arsenal”. He also alleged that information on UAPs “is not only being withheld from senior officials and members of Congress, but elements of the government are engaging in a disinformation campaign”, including personal attacks “designed to discredit UAP whistleblowers”.

Luis Elizondo, a former counterintelligence officer (make of that what you will), was even more explicit. “Let me be clear: UAP are real,” he wrote. “Advanced technologies not made by our government – or any other government – are monitoring sensitive military installations around the globe.” On top of that, he adds, the US and some of its adversaries are “in possession of UAP technologies” retrieved from alleged crash sites.

Other speakers stressed the need for transparency about UAPs, in the name of scientific dialogue and national security. “I think probably the vast majority of UAP are drones, experimental aircraft, weather conditions,” said Michael Gold, a former NASA administrator and current member of its UAP study team. “But there is a percentage that isn’t.”

Elizondo also took shots at the lack of government transparency, telling representatives: “Excessive secrecy has led to grave misdeeds against loyal civil servants, military personnel and the public – all to hide the fact that we are not alone in the cosmos.”

What does Trump have to do with this? Well, the president-elect himself has nodded to the existence of the US government’s secret UFO (or UAP) programmes a few times over the years, most recently in his appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast in the run-up to the 2024 election, where he referred to conversations with jet pilots who’d seen “very strange” things in the sky. Tim Burchett, a Republican congressman and serial Trump defender, is also optimistic that Trump wants to move toward “total disclosure” during his upcoming time in office, telling News Nation last weekend: “I think we’re gonna learn some things. It’s peeling back the layers of an onion.”

When it comes to UAPs, of course, there’s plenty of conspiracies to go around on both sides of the aisle. While some believe that the government is covering up what they know about extraterrestrial technologies, others have suggested that the whistleblowers themselves are a psy-op, designed to draw attention away from other – more Earthly – conspiracies. Plus, as Mirage Men author Mark Pilkington told Dazed last year: “Amplifying concerns about unknown, possibly unfriendly objects flying over US skies is of great benefit to the defence industry.”

In 1950, the physicist Enrico Fermi was chatting about UFO reports and faster-than-light travel with his fellow scientists, and eventually cried out: “But where is everyone?” This became known as the Fermi Paradox, summing up the frustrating contradiction between the possibility of life in the universe, and the fact we haven’t detected any yet. The same could be said about the US government’s UAP records themselves. While senior officials and even sitting presidents – from Trump to Barack Obama – have made a lot of noise about the secret presence of UAPs, suggesting at least a grain of truth at the conspiracy’s core, we simply haven’t seen any evidence yet.

And if it is a massive cover-up, it’s not just detrimental to science and national security. It’s much more interesting to think that the universe is populated with other intelligent life forms. Why should the US government get to ruin all our fun? Release the files! We want to believe!

The reelection of Donald Trump means a lot of things for America and beyond, most of them bad. Some space fans have dared to dream, however, about a sci-fi silver lining. Could this be the presidential term, they ask, where the existence of extraterrestrial aliens is finally confirmed, once and for all?

On Wednesday (November 13) a hearing with members of US congress, titled Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth, seemed to support this possibility. Following 2023’s landmark hearing with whistleblower David Grusch, politicians heard from four experts in the field of UFOs or UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomena) including a US Navy officer, a former Department of Defence official, a member of NASA’s UAP Independent Study Team, and a journalist. Between them, they made some pretty wild claims about their experiences with UAPs, including anecdotes about flying discs and white orbs emerging from the ocean.

In a written testimony, US Navy rear admiral Tim Gallaudet claimed that he’s known about UAPs for years, saying: “Confirmation that UAPs are interacting with humanity came for me in January 2015.” Specifically, he related a training exercise that was disrupted by an “unidentified object exhibiting flight and structural characteristics unlike anything in our arsenal”. He also alleged that information on UAPs “is not only being withheld from senior officials and members of Congress, but elements of the government are engaging in a disinformation campaign”, including personal attacks “designed to discredit UAP whistleblowers”.

Luis Elizondo, a former counterintelligence officer (make of that what you will), was even more explicit. “Let me be clear: UAP are real,” he wrote. “Advanced technologies not made by our government – or any other government – are monitoring sensitive military installations around the globe.” On top of that, he adds, the US and some of its adversaries are “in possession of UAP technologies” retrieved from alleged crash sites.

Other speakers stressed the need for transparency about UAPs, in the name of scientific dialogue and national security. “I think probably the vast majority of UAP are drones, experimental aircraft, weather conditions,” said Michael Gold, a former NASA administrator and current member of its UAP study team. “But there is a percentage that isn’t.”

Elizondo also took shots at the lack of government transparency, telling representatives: “Excessive secrecy has led to grave misdeeds against loyal civil servants, military personnel and the public – all to hide the fact that we are not alone in the cosmos.”

What does Trump have to do with this? Well, the president-elect himself has nodded to the existence of the US government’s secret UFO (or UAP) programmes a few times over the years, most recently in his appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast in the run-up to the 2024 election, where he referred to conversations with jet pilots who’d seen “very strange” things in the sky. Tim Burchett, a Republican congressman and serial Trump defender, is also optimistic that Trump wants to move toward “total disclosure” during his upcoming time in office, telling News Nation last weekend: “I think we’re gonna learn some things. It’s peeling back the layers of an onion.”

When it comes to UAPs, of course, there’s plenty of conspiracies to go around on both sides of the aisle. While some believe that the government is covering up what they know about extraterrestrial technologies, others have suggested that the whistleblowers themselves are a psy-op, designed to draw attention away from other – more Earthly – conspiracies. Plus, as Mirage Men author Mark Pilkington told Dazed last year: “Amplifying concerns about unknown, possibly unfriendly objects flying over US skies is of great benefit to the defence industry.”

In 1950, the physicist Enrico Fermi was chatting about UFO reports and faster-than-light travel with his fellow scientists, and eventually cried out: “But where is everyone?” This became known as the Fermi Paradox, summing up the frustrating contradiction between the possibility of life in the universe, and the fact we haven’t detected any yet. The same could be said about the US government’s UAP records themselves. While senior officials and even sitting presidents – from Trump to Barack Obama – have made a lot of noise about the secret presence of UAPs, suggesting at least a grain of truth at the conspiracy’s core, we simply haven’t seen any evidence yet.

And if it is a massive cover-up, it’s not just detrimental to science and national security. It’s much more interesting to think that the universe is populated with other intelligent life forms. Why should the US government get to ruin all our fun? Release the files! We want to believe!