I wonder if it’s the other way in this case? It seems to me that Japan’s advocacy of hydrogen is geopolitical, and the corporations like Toyota are getting dragged along to make poor business decisions, favoring hydrogen over electric.

Japan has no significant sources of fossil fuels or lithium (for a potentially lithium-based future), so they would prefer that the energy of the future were hydrogen, which they could produce themselves. Of course they would prefer to live in a future where they could make their own energy, rather than be at the mercy of imports. Corporations are getting dragged along to support this dream, even if it does not look like a great business decision.