Those countries I mentioned do not pay higher taxes. Germany does not pay higher taxes, Japan does not. Some Scandinavian countries do not pay higher taxes than the US, though a few do. Heck what do you even mean with higher taxes? You mean more than the close to 50% aggregate income/social welfare tax that is assessed on top brackets in the US? Or the huge corporate taxes in US or incredible monthly health insurance premiums? In fact I would argue that you pay way more in the US than Japan or Germany in taxes. The problem is that you right wingers allow the richest to get away with the lowest taxation which is a huge cost to the middle class because it has to shoulder all the unearned tax dollars the top escaped from.
Having worked in the number of foreign countries and paid their income tax, I can assure you that Germany, U.K. and Canada pay higher income taxes than the U.S. Having a co-worker who worked for years in Japan, I can assure you that the income taxes are higher in Japan than the U.S.