Japan, U.S. reach confidentiality accord on F-35 fighters+

TOKYO, Jan. 18 Kyodo - Japan and the United States have reached a confidentiality accord on the radar-evading stealth F-35 fighter jet, one of the strong candidates for the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force's main next-generation fighter, Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara said Tuesday.

Maehara said he and U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos exchanged documents on
the security of confidential information on the F-35 joint strike fighter
system, which involves an international consortium of developers from such
countries as the United States and Britain.
The Japanese government has earmarked about 600 million yen as research costs
on the F-35 system in its fiscal 2011 budget plan. It plans to secure a
procurement budget for the nation's next-generation fighter in fiscal 2012.
Other candidates include the Eurofighter from Europe and the F/A-18 from the
United States.
Japan was scheduled to pick a new model to succeed the aging F-4 planes by
spring 2008, but this was put off partly due to a delay in the development of
the F-35 fighters.
Another factor was the U.S. export ban on its F-22 fighter, which has stealth
capability to escape radar detection and which Japan was initially looking into
acquiring.
==Kyodo