To be fair items like this do not show that Japanese are weird, they show that people are weird.
Heck the stories I read a few years ago about paraphiliacs going to Mexico to have their legs amputated because they had amputation fetishes were about Americans. It was a Californian, I believe, who videotaped driving a nail through his penis --- though I saw something about an NZer doing the same thing, though san's video-tape (which really seems pointless). And I believe it was a Dutchman (or maybe an Englishman who went to Holland) and cut a hole in his skull with a bone saw under the theory that this would allow his brain to expand a little, be under less pressure, and would allow him to regain a child-like sense of wonder and playfulness.
Man, there are some screwed up people in every society.
That's very reasonable of you Maynard, and I'm sure that the outliers are about equally odd across cultures. But for quotidian wackiness, I say Japan rules.