TOKYO—Japan is unlikely to see inflation hitting a central bank target of 2 percent, even accounting for rising energy costs, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Thursday, making the case for keeping monetary policy ultra-easy. His remark highlights the widening divergence between the BOJ’s dovish stance and the U.S. Federal Reserve, which raised interest rates on Wednesday for the first time since 2018 and laid out plans to keep hiking borrowing costs. “It will take more time to achieve our 2 percent inflation target in a stable manner, so it’s too early to debate specifics on how to exit from easy policy,” Kuroda told parliament. Analysts expect Japan’s core consumer inflation, which hit 0.2 percent in January, to accelerate to near 2 percent from April as the effect of cellphone fee cuts dissipate. The recent spike in energy and commodity prices, driven by the war in Ukraine and …