Carrier potential was preserved, but conversion was not effortless

The ships were built to a high standard despite construction delays and immediately attracted Chinese claims that they were disguised aircraft carriers. A narrower reading is that Japan bought carrier potential rather than a covert carrier already ready for sustained jet operations. Generous internal space kept the option open, in contrast to Australia's decision to remove F-35B support features from the Canberra-class design and the later cost of reconsidering them. Izumo's original trapezoidal bow, flight-deck and hull stressing, and hangar spacing still imposed real limits. An F-35B might have used the ship in an emergency, but repeated fixed-wing sorties required the structural and deck changes later adopted. The distinction between latent capacity and an operational carrier is the central procurement lesson in this passage.