Mysterious metal sphere on Japanese beach leads to wild conspiracy theories

A mysterious iron ball has washed up on a Japanese beach, and it’s caught the attention of conspiracy theorists around the world.

The large object measuring 1.5 metres in diameter appeared in a Japanese coastal town earlier this year, and it’s only now that it provoked a reaction.

According to local media, the ball was first found by walkers at Enshu beach along the Pacific coast in the city of Hamamatsu.

Despite talk of spy balloons and possible espionage making headlines in 2023, there is no indication that the object is connected to similar activity.

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At first, people also speculated that the item could be an unexploded bomb or a weapon left over from a previous war.

However, X-ray technology was used to eradicate that threat and experts soon learned that the ball was completely hollow.

The findings came after the beach was blocked off, with police blocking off a 200-mile radius.

Some reports claimed that the ball was first spotted by a woman out walking on the beach, but one man told public broadcaster NHK that he had seen the ball weeks before, and couldn’t understand why people were now so interested in it.

“It’s been there for a month,” he said. “I tried to push it, but it wouldn’t budge.”

The truth still remains a mystery, and as you’d expect people have been speculating wildly on social media.

Some jokingly referred to the object and claimed it resembled the manga series Dragon Ball, while others speculated that it looked like “a Godzilla egg”.

What could the sphere be?NHKWORLD_News

“Lol I was thinking it was an old WWII mine, they think it’s a UFO,” another wrote.

Others claimed it could have been an old “sea mine”. However, the explanation could be more simple.

One user seemed to sum up the reactions of many commentators when they wrote: “It's a maritime buoy. There's nothing mysterious about it!”

This would seem to fit with the look of the object, which also has two handles on the surface. Still, that didn’t stop an awful lot of people speculating about the truth online.

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