It's like 'ding-dong-ditch' cellular style

I've been lazy, so this actually happened several days ago. I did write in on paper, so I'll just transpose:

This morning, my mom asked me if I'd heard the phone ring at about 1am. I had not; it must have been her cell phone. "It only rang once," she told me. Was it a text message? Was it a wrong number? "I don't think so. I think it was a weird one." Silence. Silence continues and then we turned to each other and said, "Huh?" at the same exact moment. What were the chances. Anyway, she went to see who had called. "It was definitely a weird one." (I knew, of course, that she meant a prank call, in case 'a weird one' wasn't ringing a bell for you regular people out there).

But, my logical self kicked in. If someone was calling to harass you, wouldn't they let it ring more than once? "I don't know, but the number was hidden. I'm sure they called just to annoy me. They've done it before. It's why I usually leave my cell in the kitchen at night."

I can't really believe that someone would call and let it ring once then hang up, even if it had happened on a few occasions. It brings back memories of sleep-overs in my younger days, calling up random numbers and someone saying in a thick Persian accent, "Hello? Your dog is in my backyard." It's only funny if you hear the right accent. But, even we pre-adolescent girls knew it wasn't fulfilling unless the prankee answered. I mean, I know that Japan is über well-mannered, but this is ridiculous. It seems somehow wrong that even prank callers are polite in Japan.