Sarakin

thumb|240px|right|Sarakin office building in Hokkaido is a Japanese term for a legal moneylender who makes unsecured loans at high interest. It is a contraction of the Japanese words for and . An illegal loan shark who goes above legally permitted maximum interest rates is called yamikin, short for , and many of them lend at 10% for 10 days.

Around 14 million people, or 10% of the Japanese population, have borrowed from a sarakin. In total, there are about 10,000 firms (down from 30,000 a decade ago); however, the top seven firms make up 70% of the market. The value of outstanding loans totals $100 billion. The biggest sarakin are publicly traded and often allied with big banks.