The plane:

from the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, and manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Lockheed Martin for the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, with a 60/40 split in manufacturing between Japan and the United States. The basis of the F-2's design is the F-16 Agile Falcon, an unsuccessful offer by General Dynamics to provide a low-cost alternative for the Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) competition. Production started in 1996 and the first aircraft entered service in 2000
The first 76 aircraft entered service by 2008, with a total of 98 airframes produced. The first active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar on a combat aircraft was the J/APG-1 introduced on the Mitsubishi F-2 in 1995.[2]
The F-2 is nicknamed Viper Zero, a reference to the F-16's unofficial nickname of "Viper" and the Mitsubishi A6M Zero.

Variants:

XF-2A: Single-seat prototypes.[36]
XF-2B: Two-seat prototypes.[36]
F-2A: Single-seat fighter version.[37]
F-2B: Two-seat training version.[37][36]
F-2A Super Kai: proposed variant with CFTs (conformal fuel tanks), based on the F-16C Block 60. It was intended to replace the F-4EJ Kai Phantom II. It was rejected when the F-35A Lightning II was chosen.

one of my favorite planes