This April, Japanese illustrator Mao Sugiyama offered to cook a special meal: the illustrator's surgically removed genitals. The following month, five diners paid the equivalent of US$250 to eat Sugiyama's bait and tackle, served with Italian parsley and garnished with button mushrooms.

Approximately 70 people attended the event in Tokyo's Suginami Ward on May 18 to watch five individuals chow down on Sugiyama's cooked privates.

While cannibalism is not illegal in Japan per se, health officials in Tokyo are now investigating the event...