About Cosmo Isle Hakui

Cosmo Isle Hakui opened in July 1996 as part of the city's "UFO town revitalization" initiative. It is one of Japan's premier space science museums, housing an extraordinary collection of real spacecraft from NASA and the former Soviet Union.

Hakui City has long been known as Japan's "UFO Town," thanks to a long-recorded history of unexplained aerial sightings along the Noto Peninsula coastline. This cultural backdrop gives Cosmo Isle its unique dual identity: a rigorous science museum and a celebration of humanity's enduring fascination with the cosmos.

The museum is home to the award-winning Euphony Hall, selected as one of Japan's 100 Best Concert Halls, as well as the Cosmo Theater dome cinema — making it a cultural hub for the entire Noto region.

Hakui's fascination with the skies is older than the museum. A 1928 county gazetteer, the Ishikawa-ken Kashima Gunshi, records a mysterious light called souhachibon moving slowly from east to west across the hillside — named after a cymbal-shaped Buddhist instrument whose profile happens to look like the flying saucer of modern reports. In the 1980s that single line inspired a locally produced booklet, the Hakui Guinness Book, and then a town-wide “UFO town” campaign that the city has embraced ever since.

Whether you're a space enthusiast or a curious traveler, Cosmo Isle offers an experience unlike any other in Japan.