Japan's Loan Sharks Sell Cash Online with a Premium

choi

Payday lending in Japan  l  Shark Attack; A boom in consumer lending leads to some strange excess. Economist, July 6, 2017
https://www.economist.com/news/f ... sh-it-will-cost-you
("On a newish e-commerce site in Japan called Mercari [based in Tokyo], ¥10,000 ($90) notes were on sale earlier this year for as much as ¥13,000. So bizarre was the phenomenon that it created a furore, leading the firm to ban such deals in April. * * * The ban has prompted some crafty work-arounds[:] 'Valuable portraits' of Yukichi Fukuzawa 福沢諭吉 [1835 – 1901; whose likeness adorns Japan's highest-denominated banknote, ¥10,000] * * * have been on sale for as much as ¥15,000. Or take the bottles of water claiming to contain subatomic particles called neutrinos. These were considerately sold with a cash refund attached, because of their 'extremely high defect ratio.' * * * [This is] known as sara-kin, or loan sharking")

My comment:
(a) sarakin サラ金 【サラきん】 (n): "(abbreviation from サラリーマン [katakana for 'salaryman'] 金融) consumer financing; loan shark"
(b) There is  no need to read the rest.