The Japan Air Self-Defence Force bought 140 F-4EJ that was a downgraded version of the regular F-4E lacking any ground attack capability, of which 138 of them were assembled by Mitsubishi, together with other unarmed 11 RF-4EJ. From those, 96 of them have been modified into F-4EJ Kai, equipped with an inertial laser navigation system, radar APG-66J and some other improvements and some limited ground attack capability. Eleven RF-4EJ were also updated to the Kai standard and were denominated RF-4EJ Kai. In the year 2007 Japan had 90 F-4EJ in service and studied some replacement for them, among them the F-22 Raptor, which was denied after the refusal of the US government to export it and the Eurofighter Typhoon, the F-35 Lightning II was chosen 2011. In 2017 all Japanese F-4EJ squadrons are based at Hyakuri Air Base.
Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_F-4_Phantom_II#Japan
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighter
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