@Mig I made no assessment of the japanese aerospace industry (or the respective air forces, or the development of individual subsystems) in either of my past two posts, only commenting on the time difference between J-20 and shinshin, and the difference to which they've been publicized. You're the one inferring something which isn't there and drawing out a vs debate
it is hard to know what state are the japanese, plus i do not think you can fly a stealth fighter and 7 years later be in operational service, unless the design is not fully developed, to give an example, the Russians flew MiG-23 in 1967, they rushed to deploy it in 1971 but the jet still had troubles in 1977.
So if J-20 is rushed into operational service, you can get two possible results, one is a redesign of J-20 by 2020 and get something like a J-20II like J-8 was redesigned into the J-8II, or you end up having a fighter like F-35 that is highly criticized by price scalations and design flaws.
In my opinion all the current stealth fighters will be operational in the 2020s, not earlier, because maturing the engine technology for China will be the most difficult hurdle, and it will take at least 7-10 years to mature the technology.
So to expect a J-20 in 2018 is for my more a goal than a set date, the J-20 program can move that date as many other programs have.
It might happen who knows the J-20 enters operational service in 2018, but the future is hard to predict, and i guess a 2020-2023 might be a more realistic date
