Israel itself fits this trope. It's easy to criticize Israel in the mainstream Israeli media. Try doing that in the mainstream American media, and you'll be labeled an anti-Semite among other things.
Partly because of the strong relationship between the US and Israel, as well as the proportionally prominent Jewish population in the US. Criticism of Israel is surprisingly widespread in other parts of the world.
A good part of it too is the way the Jewish community oversold the importance of Israel to the American public. Among most American Jews, Israel is not beyond criticism; it's among non-Jews (and a small minority of right-wing types) that criticizing Israel is a sensitive topic.
Israelis are actually not very satisfied with criticism of Israel on Israeli media, which is actually seriously exaggerated (making ‘Criticism Of Israel’ somewhat of a Dead Unicorn Trope). It’s journalism that is terribly left-wing inclined, while fiction, though quite left-wing inclined, is only inclined thus when it is political in nature. Nevertheless, this has become quite a subject of controversy both in journalism, among the people, and even in the parliament.
7-Eleven is a very popular convenience store chain in Japan and Taiwan (in fact, the #1 convenience store chain in both countries). The former having the largest number of stores and the latter having the most per capita. It started as a firm in Texas now a subsidiary of Japanese owned Seven & I Holdings Co—the owner of its Japanese licensee—in 2005. You can find a wide variety of items sold, such as various packaged meals, magazines, and electronics. You can also pay bills, develop photos, and other such service. Don't expect slurpees, though: they had never caught on there.
Even more exaggerated in the case of the second-largest chain of convenience store in Japan, Lawson. Lawson was originally from Akron, Ohio, and the Japanese company of the same name was originally its Japanese licensee. Unlike 7-Eleven that still existed in the US, Lawson actually disappeared from the US in the 1980s.
Citizens of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas LOVE Wal-Mart. In fact, it is almost considered religious sacrilege NOT to go there when visiting The United States.
The American dollar coin. Far more widely used in Ecuador than in the U.S. (Ecuador also uses the American dollar.)
And not just any coin but the Sacagawea dollar◊ coin representing a Native American women carrying her child in his back, in fact some people believe it's Ecuadorian coinage as that scene is something you will see more frequently in Ecuador than in the US.
Has happened twice with Sudoku. It was first invented in America in 1979, and was pretty obscure. However, in 1986, it achieved popularity in Japan. In 2005, the puzzle as well as the name itself achieved worldwide popularity.
Pretty much the same thing happened with Kakuro.
Supposedly, many more foreigners than native Japanese climb Mt. Fuji.
Friendster is an American company but a vast majority of its users are in Asia.
Orkut originated in the U.S. but was very popular among Brazilians, to the point where their servers were moved to Brazil.
Many kinds of crops and livestock have been fundamental to economies far away from their origins. Several Old World species (wheat, sugarcane, grapes, bananas, coffee, cotton, citrus fruits, bananas, cattle and sheep) have been most extensively produced by New World countries (sheep in Australia & New Zealand, cotton in the Deep South, sugar in the Caribbean, etc).
Don't forget potatoes, which invert the above by being New World plants popular in the Old World. Native to the mountains of the Andes, we humans spread them across the world because they grow well in cool, wet climates.
There is a little-known fact about the history of rice cookers—the first rice cooker, released by Toshiba in 1956, requires a small amount of water to be poured in the space between the sleeve and the insert to ensure uniform cooking and also act as a kind of timer. Technologically it was rendered obsolete in the following year when Panasonic introduced what is now the basic design for rice cookers worldwide—except Taiwan. Up to this day, Taiwanese knockoffs of Toshiba's 1956 design still dominated the market and is considered the single appliance that identifies Taiwanese cooking—to wit, one can safely assume any young Taiwanese that is going to study overseas will have one in their luggage.
Lions. They're just so cool that many nations put them on their national symbols, even when lions have never been present there.
The McDonald'sMcRib is a popular sandwich with a cult following, but in most countries that serve it, it is only served periodically. In Germany, meanwhile, the McRib is so popular, it's the only country to serve the sandwich year round.
Some of this is due to pork prices, where Germany is such a massive consumer of pork, can already supply the Mc Rib.
Thanks to a large immigrant population in America, U.S. automakers opened manufacturing plants in Scandinavia to build American market cars instead of European market cars. This led to local Raggare hot rod culture mirroring America's, and created a massive import market for muscle cars during the 1970s fuel crisis. Today, the largest American car show in the world is Sweden's Power Big Meet.
Guam is an island out the Pacific Ocean that's officially owned by the the United States, but it's only a territory, not a state. In fact, there's a lot of US citizens that don't even know Guam exists. However, Guam is seen as a very popular vacation resort in Japan, to the point where Guam actually gets most of its money from Japanese tourists.
The Volkswagen Beetle (or Sedan as it was called there) was insanely popular in Mexico, being produced until 2003 long after Germany stopped making them in 1978.
A typical Italian joke about the Adriatic seaside is that there are more German tourists than Italian.
