Misawa Mayor Yoshinori Kohiyama met on Thursday the Japanese deputy defence minister and told him that the local authorities had nothing against the resumption of the F-35A flights, the Kyodo news agency reported.
The flights are reportedly going to be resumed in the near future.
According to investigators, the April crash was caused by a pilot’s error, not a technical failure.
Japan’s F-35A jet disappeared on April 9 from radars 135 kilometres (84 miles) east of the Misawa Air Base located in the Aomori prefecture in northern Japan, just 28 minutes after taking to the air. The crash took place during a training flight involving four F-35A fighters. The only pilot of the plane remains missing.
Following the crash, Tokyo was forced to ground all F-35 flights until the cause of the incident has been established. Japan had initially ordered 42 US-made F-35 jets but recently expanded the order to include another 100 such planes.
