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Only 11% of Japanese people “willing to fight for their country”

Master Blaster
Nov 21, 2015
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WIN Gallup International recently announced the results of their international survey on people’s willingness to fight for their country. Despite recent changes to the constitution, it turns out Japanese Johnnies are least likely to get their guns among all nations surveyed.

Global, Japan
(nationalism • poll • survey • war • WIN Gallup International)

Can lightning strike twice? We return to Tokyo’s host photo studio to crown the RocketHost 【Poll】

Casey Baseel
Nov 13, 2015

Mr. Sato isn’t the only RocketNews24 reporter who recently had a Kabukicho host club-style makeover, but is he the coolest? Cast your vote and help us decide!

Japan
(fashion • Go Hattori • host clubs • makeover • Mr. Sato • photogrpahy • photos • poll • Tokyo)

Super Mega Important Debate – Japanese TV: is it just plain awful? 【Poll】

ロケットニュース24
Aug 29, 2015

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, Super Mega Important Debate is back! This weekend, we’re putting Japanese TV under the spotlight and asking you, our good-looking and never-shy-to-venture-an-opinion readers, whether you think the TV shows broadcast in Japan are wonderfully entertaining or a big bag of steaming horse poop.

Japan
(debate • Japanese TV • opinion • poll • Super Mega Important Debate • television)

Super Mega Important Debate: Capsule hotels – crazy cool or just too coffin-like? 【Poll】

ロケットニュース24
Jul 11, 2015

It’s time for another Super Mega Important Debate, folks! This week we’re talking about Japan’s famous capsule hotels. The question is, are they cool, cheap ‘n’ cheerful places to stay, or is slipping into one like spending the night in a morgue drawer, albeit while being serenaded by an overweight businessman snoring through the night?

Japan
(poll • Super Mega Important Debate • survey)

Super Mega Important Debate: Fried gyoza or boiled gyoza? 【Poll Closed】

ロケットニュース24
Jul 4, 2015

They may have come from China originally, but Japan has made gyouza – those little parcels of deliciousness that go perfectly with a cold beer – their own just as much as they did ramen. Tasty and moreish whether made fresh at home or bought in bulk at the supermarket, gyouza are one of the simpler foods you’re likely to encounter on a trip to Japan, but one that you’d be a fool to miss out on.

But while we may all agree that these things are delicious, one issue divides us on the gyouza front: namely, are they better 焼き yaki (fried on one side before being steamed in the pan), or 水 sui (gently boiled and often served with, or sometimes even containing, tasty soup)? Some argue that sui is the purer, not to mention healthier, form of gyouza, but others will tell you that yaki is infinitely better.

Let’s find out what you good people have to say on the matter!

Japan
(dumplings • food • gyouza • gyoza • poll • Super Mega Important Debate)

Super Mega Important Debate: Are Japan’s futons awesome or simply awful? 【Poll closed】

ロケットニュース24
Jun 27, 2015

Happy weekend, everyone! Congratulations on surviving another week!

But before you run off to smother yourself with butter and startle donkeys by shouting the names of under-appreciated actors from the 1980s (hey, we don’t know what you do with your spare time), we have one little question to ask you: are Japanese futons awesome, or are they awful?

Japan
(bed • futon • Japan • poll • question • Super Mega Awesome Debate)

Super Mega Important Debate: Do you shower before work or before bed? 【Poll closed】

ロケットニュース24
Jun 20, 2015

In Japan, the majority of people bathe at night before going to bed. Even if they don’t stick to the traditional routine of rinsing off before soaking in a hot bath, most Japanese find the idea of climbing into bed without having at least hopped in the shower first supremely icky – almost as icky as walking around your home while wearing your outdoor shoes.

In the west, however, many of us prefer to shower before leaving the house in the morning. No matter how well you slept the night before, the thought of not washing prior to putting on work clothes and heading out for the day seems pretty gross to most of us.

So for this week’s Super Mega Important Debate, we’re asking you to answer this one simple question: Do you bathe before bed or before work each morning?

Global, Japan
(lifestyle • personal hygiene • poll • shower • Super Mega Important Debate)

Super Mega Important Debate – Japanese squat toilets: Great or gross? 【Poll closed】

ロケットニュース24
May 30, 2015

Picture the scene: you’re waiting for your number to be called at City Hall or some other municipal building in rural Japan, when suddenly your stomach starts growling and your gut begins to twitch and spasm as that super-greasy kimchi ramen you had for lunch is pushed at top speed through your digestive tract. If you don’t go now – right now – things could get messy fast, so you make a beeline for the restroom and hope that there’s a stall free. Inside the restroom, you charge towards the half-open door on the end, a layer of sweat forming on your brow as your body starts counting down, T-minus 10 seconds to total evacuation.

Then it hits you: the stall you’re standing in is fitted not with a luxurious, bidet-equipped, warms your backside and plays music at you Washlet brand of toilet, but an old-school, upside-down urinal built into the floor Japanese squat toilet.

There’s no backing out now. The deed must be done. The question is, how traumatised will you be after using it?

Japan
(debate • Japanese squat toilets • poll • Super Mega Important Debate • Toilets)

Super Mega Important Debate: Tokyo or Osaka? 【Poll Closed】

ロケットニュース24
May 23, 2015

You knew it had to happen at some point. Sooner or later we were bound to ask you to choose which of Japan’s biggest and most famous cities is best. That’s right, folks, it’s Tokyo versus Osaka; Kanto versus Kansai; east versus west.

Click the link, make your choice, argue about it in the comments section. No biting, hair-pulling or bringing our mothers into it.

Japan
(cities • Japan • Osaka • poll • Super Mega Important Debate • Tokyo)

Super Mega Important Debate: Soy sauce-based ramen or miso-based ramen? 【Poll closed】

ロケットニュース24
May 16, 2015

Happy Saturday, everyone! We hope you got through the week with all your bits and pieces still connected and without getting fired. But before you go off and start being nice to people now that you have a day off, let’s argue about food.

This week we’re talking about soy sauce-based ramen and miso-based ramen – two firm favourites in the world of delicious, soupy noodles and each with legions of fans. But of course, as Sean Connery and Christopher Lambert told us in the 1986 film Highlander, there can be only one, so pick a side and make your click count.

Japan
(debate • Japanese food • miso ramen • Noodles • poll • soy ramen • Super Mega Awesome Debate)

Super Mega Important Debate – Natto: is it nom or vom? 【Poll closed】

ロケットニュース24
May 9, 2015

Sometimes our modern lives lack conflict. Let’s remedy that today by having a massive fight about something that doesn’t really matter.

This week, we’re talking about the fermented soybeans known as natto, and there’s one question we need you all to answer: is this dish “nom” or is it decidedly “vom”?

Global
(food • Japanese food • natto • opinion • poll • Super Mega Important Debate)

Super Mega Important Debate: Tuna or salmon sushi? 【Poll now closed】

ロケットニュース24
May 2, 2015

It’s finally the weekend, so what better way to squander our precious time off than by arguing over things that don’t really matter?

This week we’re asking: Which is better? Salmon sushi or tuna sushi?

Japan
(food • maguro • poll • salmon • sushi • tuna)

Poll reveals what we already know: Japanese toilets make no sense, confuse us all

Scott R Dixon
Jan 19, 2015

Between the futuristic Blade Runner-esque toilets and the slightly terrifying (but healthier for you) traditional squatters, Japanese restrooms can be a bit intimidating for a first-time user. And even for those who have lived in Japan for a while, using a public toilet can still be a daunting task. So to better understand restroom woes for those coming from overseas, Japanese toilet manufacturer Toto recently surveyed 600 foreigners living in Japan about toilets in the country and what confuses them most.

Japan
(Japanese style toilet • poll • public restroom • toilet • Western toilet)

Japanese men discuss the most embarrassing types of email addresses – Is yours on the list?

Preston Phro
Jan 19, 2015

Over the last two decades, email has evolved to be one of the primary ways business people communicate. That makes having a good email address all the more necessary. That Hotmail email address you chose when you were in junior high school–something like “Offspring4EVER,” probably–isn’t really what you want on your business card, even if Smash was one of the best albums of 90s. Fortunately, it doesn’t take most of us long to realize that a proper email address is part of growing up, just like deleting all those embarrassing Facebook photos from spring break.

Unfortunately, it looks like not everyone got that memo (maybe it’s in the spam folder), which prompted iResearch to take a poll of 100 Japanese men to find out more about Japan’s embarrassing mail addresses.

Internet, Japan
(email address • kirakira email address • kirakira name • poll • survey)

BABYMETAL keeps turning metalheads, voted Best Metal Album of the Year

KK Miller
Dec 13, 2014

What’s cute, frilly and metal all over? BABYMETAL of course! From relative obscurity only two years ago, to doing various concerts around the world in 2014, the presence of BABYMETAL has been sudden, if not shocking. It’s hard to believe that the combination of idol music and hardcore metal has created something that many people are getting fired up over. In fact, BABYMETAL has such a fan base now that their self-titled first album was voted as the Number 1 Metal Album of 2014. Say what?!?

Global, Japan
(Babymetal • music • poll • top charts)

Which foods define Fukuoka’s amazing culinary scene? The Internet votes 【Poll】

Scott R Dixon
Oct 27, 2014

If you have ever had the pleasure of visiting the southern Japanese city of Fukuoka, you probably know about its amazing food that has people from all over the country booking trips there just to stuff themselves silly. Between the rich, pork broth and firm noodles of the famous Hakata Ramen and the spicy delight that is mentaiko (marinated cod and pollack roe), Fukuoka is a place visitors leave having to loosen their belt a few notches.

With so many delicious things to come out of the city, an online poll set out to see which dishes people think are the epitome of the Fukuoka food scene. Click below to see the results and vote on what you think is the best food to come out of Fukuoka!

Japan
(food • Fukuoka • gyoza • hakata • mentaiko • poll • ramen)

It’s time to vote for this week’s Pic of the Week!

ロケットニュース24
Sep 1, 2014

It’s Monday evening here in Japan, and that can mean only one thing – it’s time to vote for our Pic of the Week! Join us after the jump for 10 superb photos taken by our very own readers and to vote for the one you think deserves to be crowned Pic of the Week.

Global
(contest • photography • photos • Pic of the Week • poll • vote)

And the most popular video game developer in Japan is…

Krista Rogers
Aug 4, 2014

Whether you’re an avid gamer with over 100 titles in your library or you prefer to buy only new installments of your favorite series, chances are you have a favorite video game developer or two in mind. In an attempt to draw out the most popular names, one recent internet poll asked 500 Japanese men and women to share their opinions about their favorite game developers.

Can you guess the top three in the correct order?

Japan
(Capcom • gaming • nintendo • poll • Square Enix • video game developers)

Date that deity! Japan picks the top 5 most dateable Buddhas

KK Miller
Jun 27, 2014

With the popularity of Saint Young Men, a story about Buddha and Jesus living together in Japan, readers have had the chance to imagine how a god would react to everyday life. Do they live up to their holy ideals? Or are they a little more human? Some avid readers have gone beyond those basics to imagining themselves dating one of these divine deities!

And why limit yourself to the Jesus or Buddha of Saint Young Men, when there is a directory full of other Buddhas to pursue?! We took to the streets of Nara and Kamakura, famous hot spots for Buddhist temples, and polled women on which Buddha they would want to date!

Japan
(Buddha • dating • list • poll • weird)

What’s the fastest-sounding Japanese word? (Hint: it’s the noise a bullet train makes)

Fran W
Feb 21, 2014

The Japanese language is peppered with zippy onomatopoeia that allow you to express the sound of just about anything. Website Netallica recently surveyed readers to find the fastest-sounding words in the Japanese language. As you’d expect, WHIZZ, BANG and SHWOOP are nowhere to be seen!

We explore the top five fastest words, what exactly is so speedy about them, and what kind of images they conjure up for Japanese people.