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Kenji Takagi is said to be both "the most notorious" and "the most generous" loan shark in the underworld of Tokyo. He is also a prosperous moneylender whose personal motto is "Do not wring out your borrowers." Kenji's generosity even extends to helping out the broke good-for-nothings. Good men and villains visit him seeking his advice and help; not only as a shylock but also as a fixer, a friend, and a mentor.
Glimpse the colorful twists and turns of Kenji's life: At age 16 he stabbed a young Yakuza to almost death. Becoming a clan member of a Yakuza faction, he tried (without success) to kill a rival gangster boss. His curiosity sometimes turns to show biz and journalism, but he inevitably returns to the underworld of loan sharks. His temper is murderously violent but his belief in being a good human being always stays his hand.

submitted by Yohko Ishihara

Category Level

Autobiography
Crime

Editorial Review

Kenji Takagi is ex-Yakuza, and all the murderous incidents of the underworld that he relates are shocking. Nevertheless, he is always up-front and kind-hearted. Early in his childhood, the hapless Kenji learned he had no one to rely on but himself, but he maintained his self-respect and a clear conscience. It's puzzling to certain people that Kenji's unique money-lending policies take good care of his customers. He doesn't patronize them, but he just cannot turn on his back on the underdogs, even though they're broke good-for-nothings. Kenji's dramatic stories about the world of loan sharks are not only entertaining; they also touch the heart.

Table of contents

• Prologue: Sixteen, standing in a stupor, gripping an ice pick.
• Chapter 1: Lender's hell, debtor's hell
• Chapter 2: From abandoned child to adopted child to juvenile delinquent
• Chapter 3: Junior high druggie plucking an eyeball out of a gangster's son
• Chapter 4: Out of Juvie to become a box-lunch vendor
• Chapter 5: Appointed hit man
• Chapter 6: Experience as a TV reporter
• Chapter 7: Disqualified as a money lender
• Chapter 8: "Monthly Interest Financing" is now open!
• Chapter 9: My philosophy of money lending
• Last Chapter: Codes of the loan sharks
• Epilogue: Meeting my real mother: "Thank you for abandoning me"
• Postscript

About the Author

Kenji Takagi was born in Tokyo in 1968. When he was two, his parents divorced, and he was abandoned at a foster home. At seven, he was adopted into a distinguished family in Saitama Prefecture. He soon became a juvenile delinquent, addicted to drugs and getting in fights. When he was 16, he was sent to a juvenile correctional institute for his brutal attack on a gangster's son. After getting out at 19, he became a Yakuza, a waiter, a TV reporter covering the Aum Shinrikyo cult, and a member of a black-market lending company. At 30, he started an independent business in black-market financing in Tokyo's Ikebukuro district, where he has been sticking to his policy of 30% or lower monthly interest.
Touted as the "King of the Loan Sharks" by the Japanese media, he is now well known in the underworld of Tokyo. He is single, and lives in Ikebukuro.