Sarakin

An illegal loan shark who goes above legally permitted maximum interest rates is called yamikin, short for Yami Kinyu (闇金融, "Dark Finance"), and many of them lend at 10% for 10 days.

After an outcry at the high levels of debt and the repayment tactics, a law in 2006 capped interest rates at 20% by 2010, and regulated collection methods.

[1] Strict and often bullying loan collection techniques practiced by sarakin, combined with the importance in Japanese culture of "saving face", have driven many small-business men to despair and contributed to suicide in Japan reaching one of the highest rates worldwide.

[2] Many sarakin used to be affiliated with organized crime groups (yakuza) and a scandal blew up in the early 1980s because of their unsavory, if effective, collection methods, such as showing up at a funeral or wedding to demand money, or using a loudspeaker in front of homes, schools or workplaces to broadcast non-payment of debt.

[3] These actions led to the term sarakin-jigoku, or "loan shark hell", being coined by the media and legislation which set the code of conduct for money collection.