With Barack Obama back in Asia — in India for a landmark summit with new Prime Minister Narendra Modi — this week could well have emphatically underscored a strong message to and on Asia delivered during the U.S. president's penultimate State of the Union address last week.

That, however, was not to be, as little was said about Asia in Obama's 70-minute speech to the U.S. Congress and a watching nation and world.

Explicit reference to Japan was limited to Obama's noting how the U.S. economy had surpassed Japan's: "Since 2010, America has put more people back to work than Europe, Japan, and all advanced economies combined."