Japanese psychic who produced paranormal photography (nengraphy) and claimed extraordinary psychokinetic powers at metal bending and nengraphy. Kiyota emerged as a teenage star in 1977, in the wake of the extensive international coverage of psychic Uri Geller. He was tested and filmed by Japanese scientists and his phenomena appeared on both Japanese and American television. Japanese parapsychologists put him through further tests at both metal bending and producing images on film. Two U.S. researchers, Walter and Mary Jo Uphoff, went to Japan to study him and wrote a book about their observations and findings in 1980. In 1982 several U.S. parapsychological laboratories tested him. In response to the paranormal photographs Kiyota produced, some Japanese scientists formed the Japan Nengraphy Association.
That same year, the parapsychological community was shocked by Kiyota’s confessions that at least some of the effects he had produced were produced by fraud and that the ability of parapsychologists to detect trickery by a skillful conjurer was inadequate.