Everyone in a Japanese coastal town are greatly perplexed by a large iron ball that has washed up on a beach, with authorities admitting they have no idea what it is – only that it isn’t about to explode and that it's not a Chinese spy balloon.
After the recent shenanigans with the USA shooting down various flying objects of dubious origin and possibly malicious intent, it seem that it's Japan's turn to have a head scratching episode.
The sphere, measuring about 1.5 metres in diameter, has been at the centre of fevered speculation since it washed up on Enshu beach on the country’s Pacific coast, local media reports said.
Police officers cordoned off the area and called in explosives experts dressed in protective clothing to investigate further, but reports say authorities still don’t know what the sphere is or where it came from. However, fears that it could be a stray mine were dismissed after experts used X-ray technology to examine the object’s interior and found that it was hollow.
TV footage of the object prompted speculation on social media, coming so soon after Japan said it “strongly suspected” several Chinese spy balloons had been spotted over its territory in recent years.
The presence of two raised handles on the sphere’s surface - indicating it can be hooked on to something else - prompted a more prosaic explanation: that it is a mooring buoy that had simply worked loose and floated off. OGN's money is on that explanation.