Pretty cool. And not surprising, Japan is at least as technologically advanced as the United States, they’ve just chosen not to build a lot of military hardware. I wouldn’t be surprised if it works better than American fighters.
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Lion of the Blogosphere 
The Japanese are good at waiting for Americans and Germans to experiment with new tech, and then picking what works well. Their cars are the best imo, no reason to think their aircraft couldn’t be either.
Justin
April 22, 2016 at 10:14 AM
Genuine inquiry here, could you tell me why Japanese cars are better than the German makes? I drive a MGB-GT. It’s a putt-putt, but a babe magnet all the same. Thanks.
Marty
April 22, 2016 at 12:44 PM
They aren’t massively better, but they tend to be more reliable, cheaper to fix. German cars are skewed toward over engineering, they are great too though. Depends what you want really, can’t buy a bad car. German and American cars tend to have more cutting edge tech.
Justin
April 22, 2016 at 4:48 PM
Germans have more toys, Japanese make cars that last 200K miles. Depends on your preference.
SFG
April 24, 2016 at 7:36 PM
Meh. Call me when it can transform into a mecha-samurai that fights on the ground
Tarl
April 22, 2016 at 10:29 AM
How much of this technology was literally stolen from the US? The Chinese steal from us all the time.
gothamette
April 22, 2016 at 10:31 AM
I believe that Japanese aerospace engineers can do anything that American aerospace engineers can do, and probably a lot better now that the “American” engineers are actually a bunch of foreigners. Technical jobs are still valued in Japan.
Lion of the Blogosphere
April 22, 2016 at 10:35 AM
Our “technical engineers” are simply a bunch of people from India who never shower.
Vincent
April 22, 2016 at 10:47 AM
You believe? Well, I don’t. Man, you are so down on the US, it’s depressing. It so happens that American aerospace engineering is tops in the world – STILL.
gothamette
April 22, 2016 at 12:12 PM
I agree with you, Gothamette. We may be doomed, but our best are still better and more inventive than their best.
Perturabo
April 22, 2016 at 10:38 PM
Well, ideas are stolen all the time. Often they are improved on as well. Take, for instance, stealth technologies.
A Nazi was the first to come up with the idea of a radar absorbing paint. He wanted to use it on his flying wing jet bomber.
The theories were figured out by the Russians (Soviets) and were published in an unclassified scientific paper, which made it’s way to the US and eventually to Lockheed’s Skunk Works.
A few years later, a baby F-117 was born.
ibejeph
April 22, 2016 at 2:17 PM
New anime? Waifu, most likely.
Vincent
April 22, 2016 at 10:42 AM
The US flew it’s first prototype stealth fighter in 1990. 26 years ago. The F-22 didn’t actually enter service until 2005, 15 years after it first flew. Cost of development: ~$40 billion.
Japan is not going to manufacture a stealth fighter. Even the tech demonstrator shown here uses American engines. Japan certainly has the technological and industrial base to build an indigenous stealth fighter, but not the political will.
Otis the Sweaty
April 22, 2016 at 10:53 AM
Stealth fighters were obsolete before 2005 — though not in 1990 — so that’s a pretty big problem. Cheap cruise missiles (the drones of the 1980s) could hit them reliably by then. Of course, Japan’s stealth fighter has been obsolete for decades before it will go into production.
On the other hand, if you’re just fighting Libya or Iraq or Syria, 1940s military technology is enough to wipe the floor with them so it won’t hurt to have obsolete jets.
If you ever need to face a real power like Red China or France in a military confrontation, then manned jets are useless. So are aircraft carriers and frigates. You’ll need satellites, drones, and submarines. We have those, too.
And I expect the Japanese will have them when they need them. I pray they never do.
owentt
April 22, 2016 at 8:27 PM
France is a real power?
LOL
Robert the Wise
April 27, 2016 at 12:42 AM
Japs are crazy. This is dangerous.
Yakov
April 22, 2016 at 10:54 AM
WTF is your problem with the nips? We have sushi because of them. We beat the living tar out of them in WW2. Hell, they even make a decent beer and scotch. If they go at it with anyone, it’ll probably be the PRC. Now that will be fun to watch. And like I told Lion, you’d better put some blood on your door too.
Vincent
April 22, 2016 at 12:01 PM
Japan is a natural US ally, they will be indispensable for boxing China in, if and when the Chinese decide they want to be the dominant power. They love (old) America and would never seriously try to harm us.
Justin
April 22, 2016 at 4:46 PM
After nuking them twice. Come on now, read about Japan – that race us nuts. Sushi and Sumo not withstanding. Sumo is the best sport, why isn’t it goingng international? Needs weight categories to take off. Nothing like it: the aggression, the dynamism, the no nonsense fight where almost anything goes. This is a brilliant achievement that has been under appreciated. The world sometimes is so blind. I’m too old for this, but what a sport to practice! Action, action, action!
Yakov
April 22, 2016 at 5:03 PM
If Japan serves as a counterweight to China that’s fine. However, they have a long history of militarism that could become a problem in the future.
Lewis Medlock
April 22, 2016 at 5:40 PM
Because the Japanese were involved in having thr Slavs’ asses handed to them in the early 20th century?
Mayor of Space
April 22, 2016 at 6:58 PM
I agree they’re weird, but they’re at the other end of the world, so you’d expect their culture to be very different from ours. It’s actually kind of beneficial to both parties, because they find our culture enticingly weird and come up with their own spins on our ideas–anime was inspired by American cartoons after all.
Besides, now that we made them quit invading people they don’t bother anyone anymore.
SFG
April 24, 2016 at 7:40 PM
Not impressed. I’m not aviation expert, but stealth aircraft have a particular look to them-blocky angles that better avoid reflecting radar. B-1, B-2, F-119: google them. Heck, there are even stealth navy ships that have the same odd, blocky look (google them too).
This fighter looks like none of those. It looks like an F-16. I wouldn’t be surprised if the aircraft is mislabeled, and isn’t a stealth fighter at all-just a high performance fighter. That would put it about 30 years behind US technology.
anonymousse
anonymousse
April 22, 2016 at 11:15 AM
Right. Don’t believe everything you read in the noozepapers.
gothamette
April 22, 2016 at 12:12 PM
When it come to fighters and attack aircraft, the term “stealth” only really refers to its radar cross section from a head-on perspective. The idea is to be relatively hard to see when going straight at an air defense system to take it out. It is not about looking like the nighthawk from all angles. That’s not feasible with a fighter. This X-2 looks similar to the F-22 and F-35. I would bet it has similar stealthiness, but who knows.
bobbybobbob
April 22, 2016 at 3:36 PM
Glad to see them coming up in the world. They need to develop tactical nukes next as a check on the ChiComs. Pakistan has the bomb with a low IQ backwards population, why not the Japanese?
Mayor of Space
April 22, 2016 at 2:54 PM
Same here. I am pro-Japan. Their anime is good, non-SJW television, they have cute non-bitchy popstars, and China doesn’t like them.
Perturabo
April 22, 2016 at 10:43 PM
Japan developing nukes? That’s straight on Trump foreign policy. And it makes sense. Officially, we don’t want Japan to have nukes because they are protected under the US nuclear umbrella and associated defense treaties. Practically, the Japanese have good reason to think the US might bail if a real PRC-Japanese conflict loomed, and who could blame them? Does anyone think that Obama would go to war to defend a treaty ally? No chance, and everyone knows it. As America declines into an irrelevant power more worried about insuring that middle aged men have the right to go into the bathroom with pre-teen girls, nations that have long been under American protection have to start thinking about themselves.
Mike Street Station
April 24, 2016 at 9:28 AM
Japan with nukes I file under ‘I don’t like it, but I really can’t blame them’. As you say, the USA is declining into irrelevancy, and I can’t blame them for not wanting to see their culture destroyed or, worse, conquered by the Chinese, who have lots of grudges over WW2–read about Unit 731 sometime.
SFG
April 24, 2016 at 7:41 PM