Japan to postpone military planes purchase

Japan has postponed its plan to purchase next-generation aircraft until after mid-2010 since the United States has banned exports of the planes the country wants to buy, a newspaper said Sunday.
Japan had originally planned to acquire seven next-generation fighters by March 2010 to replace its F-4 fighters, with the US state-of-the-art F-22 Raptor seen as a prime candidate. But the defence ministry has decided to reschedule the purchase plan to its next midterm defence build-up program starting in April 2010, due to a US ban on exporting F-22s, the Yomiuri Shimbun said. The ministry instead plans to upgrade its current main fighters, including 32 F-15s, for the fiscal year starting in April 2008 in an effort to make up for the purchase cancellation, the newspaper said.