In 1981, the JDA selected the Kawasaki "KA-851" design, produced by an engineering team under Kohki Isozaki, over the Fuji "FT-20", leading to a contract for two nonflying static-test airframes and four flying prototypes. As with the T-2, subcontracts were distributed over the pool of major Japanese aerospace firms. Detail design was complete by the end of 1983 and prototype construction began in the spring of 1984, leading to first flight of the initial "XT-4" prototype on 29 July 1985. The first production "T-4" was delivered to the JASDF in 1988.

The T-4 is a conservative design, with such a configurational resemblance to the Dassault-Dornier Alpha Jet that it is hard to believe that Kawasaki engineers didn't see the Alpha Jet as a model for what they wanted to do. However, even if that was the case, as with the T-2 and the Jaguar the influence was only inspirational, the T-4 is by no means a copy of the Alpha Jet, and the two machines can be told apart at a glance. The T-4 has a muscular, masculine appearance, while the Alpha Jet is more wasplike and feminine; the T-4 is bigger in length and span and has an empty weight about 10% greater

A total of 208 production T-4s was built. The JASDF has no further requirement for new T-4s at present. Upgrades are in planning, including fit of at least some T-4s with a modern "glass cockpit" to provide training for the F-2, and a full authority digital engine control (FADEC) for the F3-IHI-30 turbofans

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