The FS-X requirement of the mid-1980s set off a hard argument. Japanese planners and industry wanted a domestically designed fighter; the United States, worried about both the strategic implications and the trade balance, pressed Tokyo to buy or adapt an American aircraft. The 1987–88 compromise — formalised in a Memorandum of Understanding — made the new jet an F-16 derivative co-developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and General Dynamics, with a workshare commonly reported at around 60% Japanese to 40% American.

The deal was controversial on both sides of the Pacific: American critics feared handing advanced aerospace technology to a commercial rival, while many in Japan resented being pushed off an indigenous design. Contested figures and framings persist to this day, so treat exact workshare and cost numbers as widely-cited estimates rather than settled facts. What is not in doubt is the outcome — a fighter that is visibly F-16-descended yet substantially Japanese in wing, radar, avionics and mission.

An AESA radar replaces a single moving antenna with hundreds of tiny transmit-receive modules, steering the beam electronically. It offers faster scanning, better multi-target tracking and greater resistance to jamming and failure. When the F-2 fielded the J/APG-1 in 2000, that technology was still exotic on fighters — the United States would not field the F-22’s and Super Hornet’s AESAs in numbers until the following years. That makes the F-2 a genuine pioneer, even if the first-generation set was widely reported to underperform its promised detection range. Mitsubishi Electric addressed this with the upgraded J/APG-2, retrofitted to a large part of the fleet to extend range and improve performance with newer air-to-air missiles.

Beyond the bigger wing, the F-2’s Japanese content is substantial. The wing’s co-cured graphite-epoxy structure was an ambitious piece of manufacturing for its era; the aircraft carries indigenous mission computers, an integrated electronic-warfare suite, and Japanese weapons such as the AAM-3 and later AAM-4 air-to-air missiles and the ASM-1/ASM-2 anti-ship missiles. The F110 engine is licence-built in Japan by IHI as the F110-IHI-129. The net effect is an aircraft that shares the F-16’s DNA but is tailored, sensor to weapon, to Japan’s maritime defence needs.

The F-2 is one of the clearest cases of how a bespoke national fighter can cost far more than the aircraft it is based on. Co-developing an enlarged, composite-winged, AESA-equipped derivative — then building it in small numbers on a dedicated line — pushed the flyaway price to a level commonly quoted well above US$100 million per aircraft, several times the cost of a contemporary stock F-16. That expense is the main reason Japan capped production at 94 aircraft rather than the larger fleet once envisaged, and closed the line in 2011.

No official cost-per-flight-hour figure is published for the type, and any precise dollar number attached to the F-2 should be read as an estimate rather than an audited figure.