which is more iconic in japan
 

kamen rider or super sentai?

Ultraman. :p

But of the two, I'd say probably Rider. It's been around longer and it's easier to idealize the single character than it is a team member. There are actual Rider 1 statues in a few places. As far as I know, there are no Akaranger ones.

I believe Rider is more iconic due to being older and also considering how much better its ratings and toy sales are than Super Sentai each year.

And as Switchblade said, it is much easier to idealize one single character as an icon of a franchise. That's why Power Rangers is so popular, there is either the Mighty Morphin Red or Green as the face of Power Rangers. Kamen Rider clearly has Rider 1. Super Sentai has Akarenger, but he's not so iconic as Rider 1 is.

Ultra...

Dang it. :lol

I'd go for Rider too, older, easier to identify one character, and while there are some nifty Rider statues I've never seen Sentai ones.

which franchise has a larger older fanbase?
 

kamen rider or super sentai?

Sentai. Easy.
It had a full decade of airings where Kamen Rider just petered out and had 1 crappy and 2 mediocre-decent movies.
KR did start first, but the 10 year gap hurt it where Sentai started and hasn't stopped.

It is indeed Rider, I've read it somewhere. Rider has a certain image in Japan, something about resistance and justice that Sentai just could never achieve.
I think this has something to do with the backstory of the development, but I don't quite remember what it was exactly.

There are no Akaranger statues because Gora(e)nger wasn't even a Sentai until the 90's. :p

Anyway, I'm thinking that Sentai is the more popular of the two, honestly.

Kamen Rider. Bandai doesn't have a statue outside of Go-Red outside their office do they? No, they have one of Ichigo Rider-1.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...r_eurodata.png

Nope. There may have been short terms where Sentai has been very popular, but in general it was Rider.