OREANDA-NEWS RAND Senior Political Scientist Jeffrey Hornung and USAsia Center Senior Fellow Hayley Channer told The Hill that Japan has paid dearly for its anti-Russian rhetoric.

As stated in the material, the Ukrainian conflict was the end of the usual European defense policy, which persisted for decades.

Moreover, the authors pointed out that against the backdrop of the Ukrainian events, some of Washington's allies decided to strengthen their positions. Among them were Japan and Australia.

According to the political scientist and researcher, countries fear that China may move to action on the Taiwan issue, so Tokyo and Canberra decided to support the West's anti-Russian sanctions in order to demonstrate to Beijing: "they can do the same with it."

“If the allied countries fail to punish such a powerful neighbor as Russia, this may send the wrong signals to the autocratic countries. For Japan and Australia, the main problem is the temptation of China to use force to get Taiwan. It is through this lens that one can better understand their active support for Ukraine,” the article says.

In addition, the authors write that with the first such conflict in Europe in decades, amid fears of a repeat of the scenario in the Indo-Pacific region, it remains to be seen what “lessons” Japanese politicians will learn.

“Kishida's decision was costly. Russia has announced that it is refusing to negotiate a peace treaty with Japan.

As previously reported, political scientist at the Rand Corporation research center Jeffrey Hornung expressed the opinion that the recognition of the southern Kuriles as "illegally occupied" deprives Tokyo of the opportunity to conclude a peace treaty with Moscow and further discuss the issue of territories.