I've only ever cleaned my own ears, but the light scratching feels really good when they're itchy. Do those fancy Japanese ear cleaners feel different from basic cotton swabs?
From what I've read over the years they're not so much different as Japanese (and other Asian's) ear wax is different than many westerners' are. It's drier and less likely to come out on its own like more oily/liquidy earwax will, making those ear cleaners necessary.
Otolaryngologists use a similar tool for people who have heavy earwax build-up or blockages, although it's metal and they use a magnifying glass to scrape the excess wax out. It doesn't
hurt, but it isn't necessarily pleasant at that point, because some of that stuff gets really stuck and is hard to scrape loose. My grandfather had to go see one to get his cleaned regularly and I had to go once, but haven't had any problems since.
Those cotton swabs actually aren't for cleaning your ears. If you read the box there's warnings to
not put them in your ears at all. They mainly just push the earwax further into the canal and make a build-up more likely.