With its Dec. 20 decision to purchase Lockheed-Martin's Joint Strike Fighter F-35 Lightning II as Japan's next generation fighter aircraft, the Japanese government gets to have its cake and eat it too. What Japan wants is simple: the most advanced military technology available (or at least better than what China has); activity in the domestic weapons industry; and good relations with the United States. They get all this and then some with the F-35.

Japan is well-known for favoring licensed production of foreign military technology to keep the heavy industrial companies happy. But Lockheed has said it will allow only final assembly, maintenance, upgrade and repair capabilities by Japanese companies — not a level of industrial activity that would justify the high cost of the F-35. This is especially paltry when compared to Boeing's offer of up to 85 percent and BAE's offer of 95 percent domestic licensed production for their respective candidates. The difference is that the F-35 did not have to be a simple pork-barrel project.

Japan's weapons industry has benefited from planned and windfall contracts on a number of military aircraft in recent years. The Japan Air Self-Defense Force's fleet of F-15J fighters is currently under a retrofit project to extend their service life.