A Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) C-2 airlifter is appearing here at the Dubai Airshow during a deployment termed a flight training exercise but obviously intended also to market the type.
A second mission a week later will take a C-2 to New Zealand, where the government expects to acquire transport aircraft for delivery in the early to mid-2020s.
During deployment to Dubai the C-2 will also visit Djibouti, where the Japanese armed services, the Self-Defense Forces, are building up a capacity for regional disaster response.
“The Ministry of Defense intends to actively use the Self-Defense Forces’ foothold in Djibouti, which is situated in a geopolitically important location, as a key overseas transportation hub,” the ministry said last month, announcing the C-2 deployments. Despite the reference to the strategic value of a Djibouti base, Japan is most unlikely to be contemplating any kind of power-projection presence there.
The aircraft can appear at Dubai only because Japan ended a decades-old ban on military exports in 2014, though it still will not sell to countries that violate international treaties or U.N. resolutions or those engaged in conflict. 
The C-2 and the related KHI P-1 maritime patroller are perhaps the two products for which Japan has the greatest hopes in the international market.
The Japanese air force began receiving C-2s in June 2016 after a protracted development program; 30 are required for airlift and one, a converted prototype, for electromagnetic intelligence. 
The twin-engine aircraft, comparable to the Airbus A400M Atlas in size, has a gross weight of 120 metric tons (265,000 lb.). It is powered by the General Electric CF6-80C. The type is not designed for rough field operation.