Poorer by what metric? I wouldn't agree that life in Japan vs USA is so dissimilar that you can definitively say Japanese people/shop owners are poorer. For example, both countries rank highly on the Human Development Index [1]. In fact, Japan is #3 by inequality-adjusted HDI, whereas USA is #28.

(agree that the user you're responding to is being disingenuous about the price of Japanese toilets btw. The other differences is that public restrooms in Japan are often shared among several nearby shops--like at a train station--meaning a Toto is always within reach even if there's not one in every shop.)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Human_Dev... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_inequalit...