Ningen, The Japanese Whale Creature

What is a Ningen?

The Ningen is a legend/cryptid from Japanese folklore about a strange aquatic humanoid monster. The word 'Ningen' directly translates to 'human' in Japanese and this makes it quite a suitable name as the monster is said to possess a face and limbs quite similar to those of us humans. They are said to be quite large with reports claiming their length to be approximately 20-30 metres and state that they have a very pale skin tone. The skin itself is said to be very soft and blubbery much like that of a beluga whale. The creatures also seem to be nocturnal and have shown to be most active at night when they come to the surface, possibly for feeding or breathing. Reports of what they look like are quite varying but all of them have reported the creature having a human-like face.

Sightings/Evidence-

Reports of the Ningen can be found from as far back as the 1990s but the stories and sightings mix up with some from more recent times so the exact date isn't possible to be confirmed. The earliest sighting I could find is from some Japanese fisherman who claimed to have seen a whale-like creature with human features as it came up new to their boat in the Pacific ocean. Initially, the fishermen thought that it was some kind of submarine or whale but slowly realized that it was a strange humanoid creature which they had never seen before. The creature descended back into the water briefly after being spotted by them. I did some research but couldn't find any real mention of the Ningen after this until around 2007. It was then that the legend really gained popularity which was mostly because of a forum post on the Japanese online forum website, 2Chan. The post was made by an individual claiming that his friend, who was a whale researcher employed by the Japanese government spotted the creature in the ocean. This forum began a stretch of many subsequent articles following which there have been a large number of sightings of the Ningen mostly around the Antarctic.

In regards to the actual evidence in the form of photos/videos, I did find many photos and a few videos as well but they all seem to be lacking in quality. The best photo I could find turned out to be an artist's rendition of the Ningen and other than that it is hard to really believe that the creature in such photos is actually a 30-metre long humanoid monster. Even though they aren't of great quality I found a few pieces of promising evidence out of which one is a video in which The creature appears to have been floating through the ocean.

Theories-

1. The most prominent theory put up by theorists and believers in the Ningen is that the Japanese government is covering up the creature's existence. It is believed that the government does not want to attract undue attention to the scientific means and aim of the Whale research program, which is the program the 2007 sightings were from. Now, this theory may initially seem strange but it seems that The Japanese Scientific Whaling Program is a sort of cover-up for a commercial whaling program. This program has been banned by the International Whaling Commission in 2014 due to it being found to not be for scientific purposes but even after this Japan has still continued to keep it going. It has also been rumoured that photographic evidence of the Ningen was captured by the sailors of the original story, but the Japanese government ordered the evidence to be destroyed to avoid controversy. This means that the government has
   a valid reason for covering up such a thing and there is also a large amount of speculation that they have destroyed evidence due to which this theory has become the most popular and promising                                                                                                                                          
2. The second theory is much less interesting than the first and is simply that the creature doesn't exist and is born from pareidolia, which is the perception of recognizable shapes in a random pattern. This means that some people may have seen certain icebergs or creatures in such a manner that they resembled a humanoid shape or face and they believed it to be a Ningen. This theory is quite anti-climatic but holds steady due to there being no high quality or very promising evidence of the Ningen by anyone around the world.

Conclusion-

In most cases, deep-sea creatures and creatures' legends overall are something I usually believe in. This is because the world, especially the ocean is so vast and unexplored that there could be various types of creatures living at depths unreachable to us. One good example of this would be the Loch Ness monster which I still do believe probably does or may have existed. Now, coming to the Nignen, I personally think that although such a creature may exist, it is highly unlikely. This is because there just isn't enough evidence for it and there is no record of a creature with such humanoid features and thus it lacks a possible origin, unlike the Loch Ness monster which is very similar to the extinct Plesiosaur. The theory that the creature is just created by the imagination of people and pareidolia of the people who claim to have seen it just seems more probable as of the evidence and knowledge we have now but who knows, maybe someday we will find out more about this Japanese creature.

Thanks a lot for taking out the time to read my post and I hope you enjoyed it! for any future post suggestions or comments please feel free to contact me on any of our social media pages or leave a comment below!