As a Japanese American whose taste buds seem to be 100% Japanese, I've never once NOT considered owning a rice-cooker that won't make me perfect sticky white rice, brown rice, haiga-mai, or okayu every time. I think that's just the "norm" that I grew up with.

That said, Roger Ebert wrote quite the entertaining, if not rambling, piece on what a godsend rice cookers are. If you have the time, I recommend it for entertainment value (and some cooking ideas) alone.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2008...to_use_it.html