What a difference the war in Ukraine has made in Tokyo.

Japan has not only swiftly joined the West in condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and imposed heavy sanctions, but has also unconditionally accepted Ukrainian refugees and even provided bullet-proof vests and other military supplies to help in the wake of Vladimir Putin's invasion.

If something like this had happened in the 1980s, peace-loving liberals and socialists in Japan would have fainted or had a stroke while the Cabinet collapsed overnight. Now, however, there is not much separating conservatives and the liberal left, with both condemning Russia's atrocities in Ukraine.