Steve O’Bryan, vice president for F-35 business development at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, was in Japan, trying to push them to buy the controversial jet.

The main reason the F-35 is so controversial is that it’s taken far longer to develop, and it has cost U.S. taxpayers far more than originally estimated.

O’Bryan is hoping Japan will buy the F-35 to replace it’s aging F-4 Phantom 2 jets.  Japan is one of the last countries still using the F-4.  Also, some of Japan’s newer F-2 jets (a bigger version of the F-16) were destroyed by the March 11 tsunami.

Japan also uses the F-15 Eagle.  In 2009 U.S. officials tried to convince Japan to buy the F-22 Raptor, but that deal fell through.

Lockheed Martin is selling the F-35 on the grounds that Japan needs to meet the growing threat from China’s latest aircraft designs.  The problem is that Japan is already developing a stealth fighter of its own.

Lieutenant General Hideyuki Yoshioka says Japan’s prototype stealth fighter is expected to make its first test flight in 2014, about the same time that Lockheed Martin thinks it will be ready to finally mass produce the F-35.  So much for the U.S. trying to sell the F-35 to Japan.