No stranger than George W. Bush saying he talks to God, I guess...
But still, I really hope they are keeping her away from the giant robots and the Godzilla they keep locked away beneath Tokyo.

i think she is confusing tom cruise being japanese with his role in the movie 'the last samurai'. lets hope she doesnt believe Gov. arnold schwarzenegger is actually a time-travelling killer cyborg. might cause some diplomatic unease

I believe it would do us all a world of good if we didn't so readily class things as real or nonsense or peculiar. Why is it more acceptable (even desirable) for a President to have a certain religious conviction, than for a Japanese First Lady to have a paranormal experience, which is smiled upon at best? Especially since the UFO phenomenon in recent years has been seriously discussed by high level politicians such as John Podesta, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, Congressman Dennis Kucinich, fmr. Arizona Governor Fife Symington etc. It has also received much media attention not least through CNN's Larry King or other CNN interviews with political advocacy worker Mr. Stephen Basset. This whole topic should be taken more seriously and with less prejudice.

Ummm Stupid? I don't think this little piece of news is even worth publishing !!

how in the world can the people of japan vote for this kind of first-lady premiership?

Why is it that if we feel and think thing we do not understand, or there is no rational explanation for, do we well inept at talking about it. I think it's a good thing to talk about an experience you've had, no matter how strange or even trivial. I think it's a good thing to be open, to be honest about all matters and not to worry about what others might think. Yes, it's obviously doing well for her husbands ratings at the moment and as they say, 'No publicity is bad publicity!' I also agree with Jordan Laforge on the UFO issue, something so widely discussed yet ridiculed should not be swept under the carpet, it must be a 'real' phenomenon that so far we have no mainstream solid answer for. I do believe there are answers though, Edgar Mitchell (Apollo 14 Astronaut) recently and on several occasions stated that he has knowledge that we have been visited by alien beings and that their has been quite a lot of contact, the U.S. Government knows about it. When a Phd qualified Scientist, who's the creme de la creme, selected by Nasa to walk on the Moon says things like this, we should sit up and listen. So maybe the Japanese soon to be first lady is not that nutty after all. Keep an open mind.

UFOs - believable.

Past life associations -Somewhat believable.

Eating the sun - What the ...!!?!!!

I cant believe I'm reading this on CNN, but I guess this whole thing is not as bad. Her statements are outrageously hilarious especially knowing the fact that it's coming out of the first lady of Japan. Maybe its good to have someone unusual once in awhile to lighten things up.

Oh, come on Shubeg and Federico her husband just won because the previous premier was less fun with his own comments to various strata of his own community. At lease Miyuki makes us smile while Taro seems to be related to Italy's premier Berlusconi.

Miyuku got her 15 minutes of fame for her unique tale, is she trying to be a carla bruni wannabe..,

People have no idea what's going on around them because they seem to be stuck in a narrow state of mind. Before dismissing any information regarding this topic, I urge you to find out more about it, read and educate yourself. It's easy to disregard an experience or information that might have no logic explanations. Open your mind...

Many more people than would admit it have dreams about aliens and previous lives but mostly they are recognised as dreams and nothing more. It could be a concern when such dreams cross over and become blurred with reality and personal beliefs. However, mostly this is not dangerous as long the extreme beliefs do not influence decisions that effect other people. It would be wise to monitor Miyuki Hatoyama for any signs that she is hearing voices such as Tom Cruise talking to her and telling her what to do. This may be an indication of a mental illness or she may be on medication which has hallucinatory side effects.

Many modern day leaders have religious beliefs and because of their high dominant personalities they can impose their beliefs on those around them. There are many examples where erroneous beliefs held by those in power have led to the deaths of innocent people. For example a former South African health minister believed that herbal remedies were a cure for HIV / AIDS.

A classic case was that of President George W Bush who believes in extreme biblical prophecies and mythical places and agents of evil such Gog and Magog. He also believed that God spoke to him. This belief lead to the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraq's and coalition soldiers in the Iraq war. Had he been allowed to continue in power I am convinced (my belief) that he would have lead us to the Apocalypse as depicted in the book of Revelations. Beware the power of Belief.

I might not agree with a person's beliefs, but that does not necessarily make them crazy. I'll let the "eating the sun" go by with some tolerance for metaphorical language.

But, when people speak in clear contradiction of known facts, then they don' have a grip on reality or simply have no regard for truth. Venus is most certainly not green or hopsitable, so this lady is living outside reality.

what happened ro freedom of speech? is anubody even concerned about what the Japanese voter thinks, even as they voted for her husband and not her? Nonetheless, let her have her say. Or don't we deserve some comic relief at this rime when the world is going bonkers?

everyone is entitled to his/her opinion and if she believes that she has seen or done all those things, then let's only hope they dont affect her policy making..we wouldn't want to be in a venus-like state of affairs, or an eating-the-sun age would we?

Hasn't Tom Cruise suffered enough yet?

sounds disoriented

I honestly don't know what the fuss is all about. It seems the world cannot take a joke anymore. We even had a prominent Minister of State in one fo the West African Countries, who said he was going to fight mosquitoes with machine guns he had imported from India. He even 'threatened' all the mosquitoes with death from his machine gun and advised them (the mosquitoes) to seek refuge elsewhere. We just laughed our heads off and continued our daily business.
Please leave the woman alone to express herself.

Japan's advance techy city has got into her brains! WIth her current status, dreamland comments won't get her far. Time will tell.

Japanese people did not vote for this space cadet's husband... they voted for his party. Japan has a parliamentary system of government, so whichever party has the majority gets to choose the prime minister.

Since most of the politicians in the Democratic Party of Japan are former Liberal Democratic Party members, all the Japanese voters did was switch from Coke to Pepsi.

In Japan, the "first lady" is a non-entity... politically and nationally inactive... especially since Japanese prime ministers rarely last more than a couple of years.

Mrs. Hatoyama isn't reaching out to Scientology with that "Tom Cruise 'n me in another lifetime" bit... her sun-eating habits don't conform with their dietary laws.

This is just a piece of "ain't Japan unusual?" fluff... it's not political news anywhere, so, relax.

Everybody is entitled to whatever they want to say. Everybody is entitled to whatever they want to do. It's a free world. However, one's freedom ends where another's begins.

If this lady is going to just keep talking funny stuff and keep it at that, it's fine. We have people in Capitol Hill who say funnier stuff. But if she starts imposing her funny stuff onto us, then we need to be careful, very careful.

I met Tom Cruise in a previous life also.

Alka...eating the "sun"? Think about the Christian belief of also eating the "son" and drinking his blood. It happens every "Sun"day in churches around the world. Oddness is in everyday life, sometimes we forget it out of habit–plus your and my ancestors used to worship that same sun.

A bit strange, but in either way, she believes what she believes. She is not the leader that was appointed, so I know it really doesn't matter to politics in that case. She is, however, married to the leader of Japan. It may cause concerns with some people or give hope to a few weird ones. If she will effect politics or Japan, or the world for that matter, we will have to wait and see. For now, there is no reason for us to be caring.

Also, I think there is this to be incorporated: Reincarnation is a well-known religious belief. Like you guys before me have said, it is no different than "talking to God." Eating the sun, also, is a type of meditation. It's a spiritual and symbolic thing. Don't jump all over her because of that.

Tried eating the sun. Burnt the roof of my mouth.

Now her husband is going to be running the country, I hope she uses her own UFO for these trips and does not use the Presidential ufo for personal trips.

Certainly Her elevator dosen't go to the top.

i'm just thrilled that she is an outspoken women demanding equality from her husband in a country that seriously needs this type of female role model! women continue to be more repressed in japanese society than in any developed nation in the world. japan is in dire need of a political regime change and a way for women to be able to stay in the workforce after having children. maybe this "crazy" outspoken shake up in power will solve the aging population issue by allowing a viable male AND FEMALE workforce to carry on the 2nd largest economy in the world.

If you have read novels by Haruki Murakami, such as The Wind-up Bird Chronicles, you wouldn't be too surprised about Miyuki Hatoyama. She is just like the characters Nutmeg in the novel walking right out of the book and stand in front of you. Haruki Murakami and Miyuki Hatoyama are about the same age so their generation might have something in common. They all want to be rebellious, independent and freedom.

I am japanese guy.
She was actress, so she can see diffrent world.Artist should be sensitive.

"soul travelled on a triangular shaped ship to Venus" umm.. yeah.. Astral Projection.. im surprised that people have never heard of this before. Afterall.. we are interdimensional beings.

Well, although the multitude may not be familiar with Japan's First Lady's way of perceiving life, it is not really uncommon or new.

Who hasn't been introduced to – or at least come across terms such as reincarnation, UFO/IFO, ETs/UTs, Out-of body experiences (OBE), breatharianism or feeding on the Sun's energy?

It sounds nice with a First Lady admits to have an inner life, and even nicer that she dares to speak of it in public.

Welcome to the 21st century.

She sounds completely delusional.

If this is the kind of person that the new PM chooses to surround himself with, I feel sorry for the people who will have to put up with his leadership for however long he retains office.

People need to start stamping out delusional beliefs like this. Past lives, UFO flights to Venus... these kinds of beliefs are what drives ridiculous beliefs amongst the next generation, like the shockingly widespread belief in vampires.

Leave fairy tales in the fiction department.

I hope she uses her own UFO for these trips and does not use the Presidential ufo for personal trips.

soooooooooo funny.... Outstanding... Ya... using UFO in hi-tech country can save the gas and help global warming ;-)...Brilliant idea only IF UFOs do exist...

There's always a couple of Jokers in every Deck ... ??

I wonder if Tom Cruise remembers anything?

I am sure they will keep her out of sight and highly medicated from now on.

On the brighter side the Japanese will have something to laugh about till they get over their economic problems. Can the judgement of a man who married an irrational woman be trusted? Talking from personal experience, wifes definitely influence husbands.

I think she is harmless. But what she has said (and will say) could hurt her husband in political setting in the future.

Oh we have nice first lady, now.

Eating sun means getting energy from the sun to make herself cheer up. In Japan, women, especially housewives, are expected to be cheerful or bright like the sun. In her interview, she said that her most important thing is to make her husband feel happy, relieved and relux when he is at home.

She wanted to write a quirky book...I mean it's like Calvin n Hobbes and their imaginary adventures...we all LOVE it....and well she has to promote the book ' cos who'd buy it otherwise....the first lady of Japan will make her few bucks out of it and her husband will gain popularity....or sympathy...either way she'll feel as important as her husband, he'll get more attention and the people of Japan will have a respite from always having to hear about how bad things are because of the recession.

Nice to see CNN doing the hard yards and getting the real stories. I can't believe the reporter in this "blog" actually managed to go as far as youtube comments to obtain his information. Incredible investigative journalism there.

Thank you CNN

That's a typical experience of a traditional Indian mind.May be she has some Indian connection.Hope she takes a trip to India and find about that.

I think she's great. Confident, eccentric and refreshing. A (much-needed) boost to Japanese women who generally tend to be quite timid and subservient. Good for her.

I don't think she means she literally EATS the sun, rather she ingests
it's power, which makes sense if you think about it since the sun is the primary device that enables life to exist on this planet. As far as her Venus dream goes – she maybe did have a very vivid dream like that, but like all dreams, it was just analog. I have dreams of flying to planets, moons, etc. all kind of ways, but I have vivid dreams like this so, much that I know it is not for real. It does seem rather ironic that she would talk about eating the sun when so many of her countrymen/women literally did get a taste of the sun when the bombs were dropped 60+ years ago? Actually they were 12x hotter than the sun. It just highlights the fact that the wealthy ruling class have such petty concerns while the common people have more pressing things to worry about. Maybe she believes that the guy who
played as Mini Me on Austin Powers really was Napolean Bonaparte
in a past life.

It absolutely amazes me that people can poke so much fun at people that believe in aliens, UFOs, ghosts, and such phenomena, but then expect the rest of us to accept their belief in a supernatural deity that created the entire universe!
Geesh, people, just accept the fact that we all have our differences and if you want us to believe your fairy tales then you should respect those that the rest of us believe.

I for one am engaged by the different point of view she represents...by this I mean, her as a woman, her as an artist, and her as a Japanese citizen.
Are we so sure of ourselves that we cannot embrace a different perspective? After all, if we were all alike, how bland and uninteresting the world would be.
Imagine the attitudes of the average person before discovering the world was round! Imagine the world before the knowledge of the Sun being the center of our galaxy? Imagine the world before the knowledge that light was found to be made up of nothing but energy?
For that matter, consider the leap of faith it takes to imagine the concept of energy? Weren't these crackpot ideas viewed with such scepticism, that their proponents were sometimes threatened with death??
I am delighted to be presented with "crackpot" ideas- they interest me, and allow me to stretch intellectually.
Let us take a step back and embrace our differences.

Miyuki Hatoyama may well be on the way of becoming the next Carla Bruni.

Unlike in the United States, Japan has already elected a prime minister in the past who has divorced his wife. (He was elected as a single man.) This means, it was not a big news for the new first lady to be a divorcee even though she was the first one. I also find it so natural to hear a pun "eating sun" at least in the Eastern culture context. Another similar example is that the actors/actresses (in Japan) tend to write a kanji character of a "man" on their palm several times and make a gesture of eating it before there performance starts on stage in order to calm themselves down. It is also true in some Yoga practice they specifically face their body to the sun. Miyuki is also famous as being a cook book writer. It is true she is multi-talented. I hope the fear driven culture of the West will not take her openness away.

This is just weird beyond the point but why would they vote for someone that is "not all there" maybe they should've done a more thorough background check on her :) Divorcee, Actress, and wanting equality haha what more could you ask for, maybe the next smart thiing they need to do for her is set up a appointment to the psychiatrist maybe they can help her with her delusions.

The First Lady is no doubt an interesting new presence in Japan's politics. I'm hoping her remarks don't reflect her only views. Maybe she actually has informed opinions and at the appropriate time will voice those opinions. Really I don't guess that's her "position" or "place" in her husband's career. Maybe a bit flaky is preferable to embarassing your husband with and unflattering public opinion. Anyway I wish her the best–can't be easy living in an country's fishbowl.

I agree with the multiple commentors who said this news items should never have been published as it exacerbates the "Japan is wierd" viewpoint, or at the minimum uses minor personal characteristics and prejudices about them into to distract us from actually meaningful issues: kind of like Michelle Obama's arm tone or wardrobe...Poor journalism...waste of everyone's time and resources in a hard-pressed world.

And I also agree that the "eating the sun" bit should have been translated in a way that makes a little more sense to Western readers.

You think she is a bit crazy? Just look at Christian (or Muslim, or Hindu, or...) beliefs. She sounds quite sane in comparison.

It's not unusual for people in Asia to believe they have lived in a previous life ( and will live again in another life) .

What if she's right and all of the disbelievers are wrong ?.

Whooooa, life takes on a whole new meaning , ne ?

I think she's cool. I'll buy her book....ah..as soon as I learn to read Japanese. Meanwhile I'll stick with Martian and Antarian. Live long and prosper and may the Force be with you.