It's because traditionally in Japan an O or maru is used as a symbol for yes, and X or batsu is used for no.
This. It's not the Japanese who are "being different", it's the English ones.
Honestly the JP one makes more sense to me, since the X sign traditionally evokes "bad/fail, etc." in me while the circle is the opposite. Think of Britains Got Talent or any other similar show, when they buzz people out they get X marks.