Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara said Tuesday that Japan and the United States have reached a confidentiality agreement on the F-35 fighter jet, which is highly likely to become the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force's main next- generation fighter replacing its outdated F-4 fleet.
According to Maehara, he and U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos exchanged documents on the security of confidential information on the F-35 fifth-generation multirole fighter system.
While other planes could be chosen to replace their old Phantoms, the F-35 makes the most sense, in my opinion. While expensive, it is good. Japan is also used to buying expensive stuff. And it would ease logistics to fly what we will fly.
Japan equipped with this plane will be better able to hold the door open in the face of Chinese attacks so that our reinforcements can flow into the western Pacific region if we are called on to fulfill our treaty obligations to allies in the region.
