There are plenty of American examples like Apple and DeWalt that disprove this premise. Choosing just one product is not a big enough sample space. I'm sure there's plenty of crap made in Japan as well.

This reduces to "people who care about quality can make exceptional products no matter what country they are in."

True, and most of these companies mentioned have plants/partners in other countries.

Just like Apple has components and products created in other countries, so Canon also has US-based plants.

I'm getting a 5DII next month.