First there was "Japan bashing," the buzzword of the 1980s to describe U.S. anxieties about Japanese auto exports and lost American jobs. Then came "Japan passing" in the 1990s, when this economically weakened nation was shrugged off as irrelevant.
These days, the phrase floating around to characterize the world's second largest economy is "Japan surpassing" - praise for a country that has far exceeded American expectations as a reliable ally standing behind U.S. efforts in Iraq.
