X2, F-35B or F-15; Where Japan Should Place the Bet

choi

Paul Kallender-Umezu, Japan Faces Challenging Choices for Cash-Strapped Air Force. Defense News, Feb 14, 2016.
http://www.defensenews.com/story ... air-force/80083926/

Note:
(a) "Critics have raised concerns that Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force (ASDF) could find itself with only a modest number of fifth-generation aircraft backed by obsolescing fourth-generation planes, based around the F-2 and F-15s, that lack interoperability."

interoperability (n): "ability of a system (as a weapons system) to work with or use the parts or equipment of another system"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/interoperability
(b) Mitsubishi X-2 Shinshin 心神
(c) Steven Ganyard, president, Avascent International says, "The threat to Japan is not Chinese fighters. It’s thousands of cruise and ballistic missiles that could easily cut off all Japan south of Kyushu. This most important reason to have both F-35s and upgraded F-15s with AESA radars is the cruise missile threat of low flying, low [radar cross section] missile salvos that could quickly become overwhelming. This also points out the importance of a 'raid breaker' capability along the Nansei Shotō 南西諸島 [ie, 琉球諸島], perhaps mobile rail guns." (insertion original)
(d) "The deeper problem, analysts agree, is that Japan needs to pull back from funding aircraft  that are not internationally competitive, such as the F-2, the C-2 and the P-1"

Kawasaki P-1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawasaki_P-1
(e) "Jun OKUMURA, visiting scholar at the Meiji Institute for Global Affairs, and a former official of the Ministry of Economy"

明治大学国際総合研究所客員研究員 奥村 準 (Meiji University: private; founded in 1881; campuses in Tokyo and Kawasaki)
(f) "Ganyard said one reason there has been a shift in thinking away from the F-35B is" EMALS and its associated arresting gear. My guess: Mr Ganyard means to say that with EMALS, Izumo-class helicopter destroyers may fly F-15, in case the carrier is well protected.