The Bank of Japan began its two-day policy meeting Thursday, with observers expecting its expansive monetary easing policy to go unchanged due to the modest pickup in inflation and the uncertainty over the economic ramifications of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The central bank’s policy is falling further out of step with that of the U.S. Federal Reserve which on Wednesday moved ahead with a 0.25 percentage point rate hike, its first since 2018, highlighting their differing levels of concern over accelerating inflation amid COVID-19-induced supply bottlenecks and increased commodity prices. Th…