Yes. The United States had a number of pre-war plans drawn up that dealt with what to do in a hypothetical war with each major power. They were coloured coded, so War Plan Orange was Japan, Red was Britain, etc.

However they also had a subset of plans named Rainbows 1-5. Rainbow 1 essentially assumed the USA would be without major allies and being attacked by a coalition of major powers. What's important is the last plan, known as Rainbow 5. It assumed American would be at war with Germany and Japan and allied with France and Great Britain. That was the war plan that the United States and did call for a German centric strategy.

However, war plans can change, and the Germany first strategy was only decided upon at the "Arcadia Conference" held with Britain in the weeks after Pearl Harbor. Both sides agreed that Germany would be dealt with first, and that Japan could be held in check until Germany was defeated.

In the initial months of the war, Germany first was more of an illusion than a reality. Since the USA lacked the shipping capacity in the Atlantic theatre to move men to Britain, most American material went towards the Pacific. The Navy obviously favoured a Japan first approach, and largely succeeded in getting their demands in the very early stages.

That changed with the created of Combined Chiefs of Staff, which saw British and American military leaders working together, obviously this meant that the British (totally committed to a Germany first strategy) and the American army (also committed) could work together to implement that even if the American Navy (and MacArthur) wanted to take out Japan first.

After the creation of the Combined Chiefs of Staff the decision making process turned decidedly towards European matters. Memorandums and plans were drawn up for invasions of Europe or Vichy held Africa. Roosevelt, nominally commander in chief of the American armed forces, was also more concerned it seemed with European matters, he greatly increased aid towards Britain and military production was also redirected to aiding Britain. Roosevelt didn't neglect the Asian theatre, but it was definitely secondary from a planning standpoint.

Its hard to measure who was "more dangerous", but regardless the British hardly needed to convince the Americans of Germany's danger. American military planners were terrified of the Germany's potential victory over the Soviet Union. They also feared that if Germany was left alone its army would be near unbeatable by 1943.

Edit:

Good book on the topic is "There's a war to be won" by Geoffrey Perot.

Also, was it true that Germany was the more dangerous foe

Yes Germany was the more dangerous foe because Germany could still physically attack Russia and the UK which were essential military powers to the Allies; for all the Allies knew Germany could have been building an Atom Bomb to be dropped on London. If either of those powers were to fall it would be a struggle for the U.S.

On the other hand Japan was only a threat to the U.S. and could not even come close to attacking the U.S. mainland. Even if somehow Japan managed to cause significant damage to the U.S., it would be restricted to the Pacific U.S. and would not change the direction of the war; can't see Japan sending a large enough invasion force to conquer the USA. So Japan as a threat to the Allies was less than Germany.