At the end of September 2013, the Air Defense Command's Air Combat Skills Competition was held at Hyakuri Air Base. When I visited Nyutabaru Air Base on September 10, 2013, the F4EJ Kai of the 301st SQ were training hard in preparation for the competition. On that day, there were two F4EJ Kai (No. 436 and No. 440) with special paintwork for the competition.

The six digit serials of JASDF aircraft may appear random but they conform to a simple system. The first number is the last digit of the year in which the aircraft was delivered, in this case 1980; the second is a type code (7 = F-4); the third is a role code (8 = fighter); and the last three are individual sequence numbers (436 = one of the last in the production block 301 to 440, tying with c/n)