--- title: Rare Giant Squid Spotted Off the Coast of Japan description: The animal was about 12 ft. long—small for the species canonical: https://time.com/4162463/rare-giant-squid-spotted-japan/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-28T19:13:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T13:39:48.193Z article:section: Science og:title: Rare Giant Squid Spotted Off the Coast of Japan og:description: The animal was about 12 ft. long—small for the species og:url: https://time.com/4162463/rare-giant-squid-spotted-japan/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5952f3435c64d317/698876fa0a4a2245739c7afb/giant-squid.png?branch=production&width=624&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 624 og:image:height: 351 og:image:alt: giant-squid og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Rare Giant Squid Spotted Off the Coast of Japan twitter:description: The animal was about 12 ft. long—small for the species twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5952f3435c64d317/698876fa0a4a2245739c7afb/giant-squid.png?branch=production&width=624&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Rare Giant Squid Spotted Off the Coast of Japan > Sponsored content. 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It reaches 40,000 subscribers with a 34.2% open rate and a 2.1% click rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Dec 28, 2015 7:13 PM UTC  CNN by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Dec 28, 2015 7:13 PM UTC A giant squid was seen off the coast of Japan on Christmas Eve, making one of the species’ [very rare](http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/28/asia/toyama-japan-giant-squid/) appearances. Spectators spotted the creature from a pier in Toyama Bay, where Akinobu Kimura, the owner of a diving shop, swam up to the squid and captured it on video, CNN reports. “This squid was not damaged and looked lively, spurting ink and trying to entangle his tentacles around me,” he said. “I guided the squid toward to the ocean, several hundred meters from the area it was found in, and it disappeared into the deep sea.” The animal was estimated to be about 12 ft. long, comparatively small for the species, which can grow longer than 40 ft. Giant squid usually keep to deep waters, and are very seldom spotted in the wild. \[[CNN](http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/28/asia/toyama-japan-giant-squid/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4162463/rare-giant-squid-spotted-japan/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4162463/rare-giant-squid-spotted-japan/"},"headline":"Rare Giant Squid Spotted Off the Coast of Japan","datePublished":"2015-12-28T19:13:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:39:48.193Z","description":"The animal was about 12 ft. long—small for the species","url":"https://time.com/4162463/rare-giant-squid-spotted-japan/","keywords":["animals"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5952f3435c64d317/698876fa0a4a2245739c7afb/giant-squid.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5952f3435c64d317/698876fa0a4a2245739c7afb/giant-squid.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"giant-squid","caption":"giant squid","creditText":"CNN","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/animals/","name":"animals"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4162463/rare-giant-squid-spotted-japan/","name":"Rare Giant Squid Spotted Off the Coast of Japan"}}]}] ```