I think deep down even Japanese knows that Japan would be a lot more prosperous and stronger under a China-centric world order than any western-led world order. The central cause of Japan's hostility towards China stems from the odd fact that LDP, the ruling party of Japan for the last 50 to 60 years, its leadership are the descendants of the Japanese militarists who oriented Japan from the ''East'' to ''West''. They ultimately have ''skin in the game'' to keep the orientation going long as possible because they fear what the Chinese leadership could do to them.
It's not quite so recent though. Japan's alignment to the West dates back to the publication of the editorial
when the leaders of Meiji Oligarchy (ex samurai from Choshu, Tosa and Satsuma) officially threw in with the colonial empires who were terrorizing China (for context, this was the same year that the Japanese mobilised their troops and suggested to join the French invasion of China. That's the reason why Li Hongzhang panicked and surrendered Vietnam and Guangzhouwan even though the French National Assembly were almost about to vote to surrender as well. the Japanese trouble making dates back very very far. some say to the Tang dynasty in Korea) But yes, these are the same group who are still ruling Japan's unofficially semi-hereditary legislature. Before the Meiji restoration, we know from China's records that our ancestors did not really care too much about the Japanese and treated them, at most, as a mild annoyance. Imagine my surprise when I read this book: Toby, Ron P. (2019).
Engaging the Other: 'Japan' and Its Alter-Egos, 1550-1850. Brill's Japanese Studies Library. BRILL, where it turns out that we have been living rent-free in the Japanese heads at least since the Ming dynasty!
If there was no US trade embargo and Plaza accord, Japan would have kept their (undemocratic and unfree-market) LDP jiban-Keiretsu-Tokyo U Law graduate MITI Class I Officials system and would have overtaken the US GDP nominal. China appreciates the developmental state system, the US calls it cheating. So it's rather odd that the same people who benefit the most from China's rise are the ones most opposed to it hahaha goes to show the power of longstanding ethnic prejudices.