That's debatable at best. As far as I can tell from trying to get a solid answer on this, all the 2UZ-FE are sinter-forged rods. This... rumor (can't say it's true, but can't say it's not) started mainly because the only 2UZ-FE vehicles to get the superchargers in the US (as far as I know that's mainly where most of them were installed/operated) were on Sequoia and Tundra; Those on LC and 4Runner had to be adapted to fit and as far as I remember were never offered with "Fit Kits" sold by Toyota. This left an extremely small number outside of the Tundra/Sequoia equipped with superchargers, thus the majority of the failures noticed and recorded by Toyota were from the "officially approved" vehicles equipped with them. Thus a suspicion from somewhere began that since the 4Runner & LC are made in Japan that the issue is with crap US rods (which were the main failure point in boosted 2UZ-FE units.)
As of this post I have not seen anything definitively indicating that there were anything but sinter forged connecting rods used in the 2UZ-FE in all units produced. Nor have I seen anything indicating that the two rods were significantly different in design, shape, and/or metallurgy (though part numbers may have been different due to originating supplier). So at best, the rods in all 2UZ-FE were never really designed for boosted applications (as you can easily see by finding the famous connecting rod comparison from 1UZ to 3UR rods). That compounded by people running improper fuel rating (you'd be surprised how many people ran regular instead of Premium, the stories I've heard from fellow techs and an FTS or two were entertaining about the mistreatment of some of those vehicles), user error (droppin' burnout all the time, ect.), and tuning issues from the factory resulted in failures. It was a combination of things, but the engine being mainly designed for NA was a big factor.
So at best I'd say, it's possible a US/Non-Japanese supplier had a slightly "weaker" rod than the Japanese supplier; but it seems more that it's a case of coincidence being attributed as fact.