Japan has a stealth fighter project, the Mitsubishi ATD-X. Japan did want to buy the American F-22 fighter, but the US government has refused to sell it to Japan, citing the risk of its technology falling into the wrong hands (i.e. China’s). Instead, the USA has offered to sell Japan the F-35 fighter, which has less capable stealth and is less maneouvable than the F-22.
Incidently there has been some French involvement in the programme:
France has been supporting the Japanese stealth program: between September and November 2005, the model was tested in the French government’s radar cross-section (RCS) range. Using the French range is logical. At Bruz, near Rennes, France’s DGA defense agency’s CELAR (center for military electronics) laboratory constructed the Solange indoor RCS range. A photo found here shows that Solange may be the biggest indoor RCS range in the world, capable of measuring a real fighter rather than a subscale mock-up.
It’s interesting to speculate that this may evolve into a Japanese-European joint programme, since Europe does not currently have its own stealth manned fighter programme (though it does for stealth UAVs). One possibility is that Japan could agree to buy European fighters now (either Rafale of Eurofighter Typhoon) in return for European purchases of the new Japanese aircraft. Europe and Japan have an incentive to co-operate on stealth programmes, since the alternative of buying from the USA has disadvantages, not the least being the USA’s reluctance to sell its most advanced gear.
(via Slashdot)
Amused Cynicism 
A bit off topic, but why can’t the Royal Navy get a navalized Typhoon instead of the F-35?
There was a study done (in the 1990s I think) on the feasibility of a navalised Typhoon. It concluded that although it could be done, the cost would be excessive.
@ George , because the F35 ( Navy ver. ) is a VSTOL.
Here’s some photos of the Mitsubishi ATD-X:
Nice photos, Andrew.