Japan may be sympathetic to some of the complaints driving the U.S. to impose 25 percent tariffs on about $50 billion of Chinese-made products, but it will find little reason to cheer.

For one thing, if Chinese exports become more expensive in the U.S. because of the tariffs, competing goods from elsewhere will be more attractive. For Japan, that may create a bigger political liability in an era when U.S. President Donald Trump is haranguing even the U.S.’s closest allies about their bilateral trade balances.

“In the end Japan’s trade surplus with the U.S. would get bigger, and the demands from the Trump administration to reduce it would get even stronger,” said Junichi Sugawara, senior research officer at Mizuho Research Institute. U.S. demands for greater access to Japan’s agriculture and auto markets would grow, he said.

The U.S. tariffs, which cover sectors from health care to auto parts, will affect countries other than China. Japanese companies have sourced production in China, and many Chinese-made tech exports such as smartphones, contain Japanese parts. If U.S.-bound shipments from China slump, Japan will take a hit as well.

One irony is that Japan and the U.S. are in broad agreement on many trade issues, including China’s intellectual property practices, but Tokyo finds itself watching warily as the U.S. acts unilaterally.

Japan shares an understanding with the U.S. that China’s infringement of intellectual property and excess steel production is a problem, Sugawara said, but it doesn’t agree on how to address the issue. “If the U.S. were to bring this up in the WTO, I think Japan would join it in the case,” he said, referring to the World Trade Organization.