Most Japanese cars have higher reliability than the major American manufacturers can claim. I must give credit to the American manufacturers, though, as they have narrowed the gap significantly over the past couple decades, but they still lag behind.
I think the general styling of most Japanese cars brought to the US is better than the US cars. There are, of course, exceptions. For American cars I must say the Corvette and Viper lines have very nice styling, the Prowler was a pretty good lookin ride while it lasted, and of course many of the older American cars had very nice styling. For Japanese cars I must say there are plenty of ugly ones and plenty of nice looking ones.
Of course when you get into arguments about fuel economy and handling those really depend on the cars. One must consider what the car was designed for before making judgments on fuel economy and handling. Arguably Camaros and Mustangs have pretty poor handling, especially for a "sports car". However they are fairly well-suited for drag racing, something that the average Japanese car isn't well-suited for. Comparing 4cyl with 4cyl and 6cyl with 6cyl with comparable displacements in similar product lines (family sedan vs family sedan, sport vs sport, etc) you will probably notice a general trend that the US automakers have comparable fuel economy to the Japanese makers.
One must also consider that the US automakers make and sell plenty of very nice rides outside of the US, as do the Japanese companies.
Overall there is no clear determination between US and Japanese companies to declare one side better than the other. Each country and company produces products that are good, decent, and bad. Whether you feel one design philosophy is better than another is, ultimately, a matter of opinion rather than fact.
So next time someone goes off on how great US or Japanese cars are as compared to the other, kindly tell the person that it's all a matter of opinion and that you don't care to hear his.
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