日本黑帮也缺钱 尴尬面临"钱荒"

Japanese gangsters are poised for a credit crunch after the country’s top banking lobby declared it was fed up with yakuza members defaulting on car and small-business loans and would work with police to cut them off.

日本黑帮面临一场信贷紧缩，因为日本银行业主要游说团体称，其对黑社会成员在汽车和小企业贷款上的违约行为忍无可忍，将与警方合作，切断流向黑帮成员的贷款。

The move comes amid a scandal engulfing Mizuho, Japan’s second-biggest financial group by assets, which said last month that it had supplied gang members with loans via Orient Corp, a consumer-finance affiliate.

这一举措出台之际，日本资产规模第二大的金融集团瑞穗证券(Mizuho)正面临一则丑闻的困扰，该集团上月承认，曾通过附属的消费金融公司Orient Corp向黑帮成员提供贷款。

Takeshi Kunibe, chairman of the Japanese Bankers Association, told reporters yesterday that the group would team up with the National Police Agency to share information, so that gangsters seeking funds from about 200 domestic and foreign banks were cut off at the source.

日本全国银行协会(JBA)会长国部毅(Takeshi Kunibe)昨天告诉记者，该协会将与日本警察厅(National Police Agency)合作，互通信息，对黑帮成员切断大约200家国内和外资银行的资金来源。

After the scandal emerged, the Financial Services Agency ordered Mizuho to improve control and compliance functions, declaring them “seriously” flawed. Lending to “antisocial forces” went on for more than two years after it was detected, the FSA said. Mizuho said that transactions totalled Y200m ($2m), mostly for car loans.

瑞穗丑闻曝光后，日本金融厅(Financial Services Agency)曾命令瑞穗证券加强内控与合规职能，声称该行在这些方面有“严重”缺陷。日本金融厅表示，向“反社会力量”放贷的行为在被官方察觉以后仍持续了两年多。瑞穗表示交易规模总计2亿日元（合200万美元），其中大多数是汽车贷款。

Authorities and banks in Japan have struggled for years with the issue of how to deal with yakuza members, who tend to make one or two instalments to avoid prosecution for non-payment, then retain the rest.

多年来，日本官方和银行一直在如何应对黑帮成员的问题上大伤脑筋，这些黑帮成员常常支付一到两期的分期付款，以避免因不偿还贷款而被提起公诉，然后就侵吞其余贷款资金。

In 2009, a bank set up by Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara to support small to midsized businesses collapsed, after a chunk of its loan portfolio found its way to the mob.

2009年，由东京都知事石原慎太郎(Shintaro Ishihara)设立的一家支持中小型企业的银行突然倒闭，原因就是该行有很大一部分贷款落入黑帮手中。

In 2010, the national police announced they were “doubling” efforts to clamp down on the yakuza . A year later, the police rolled out a law requiring loan applicants to sign a declaration that they were unaffiliated to the yakuza.

2010年，日本警方宣布将“加倍”努力打击黑社会。一年之后，警方出台一部法令，要求所有贷款申请人签署一份声明，声明自己与黑社会无关。

The Japan Securities Dealers Association, representing about 500 brokers and intermediaries, this year began screening prospective clients with a police database of tens of thousands of yakuza-affiliated individuals.

代表约500家经纪商和中介机构的日本证券业协会(Japan Securities Dealers Association)从今年开始利用警方数据库核查潜在客户，该数据库包括数以万计与黑帮有染的人员。

Yesterday’s move by the JBA could put Japan’s banks on a similar footing.

全国银行协会昨日的举措可能会令日本各银行开始采取类似行动。

The squeeze on mob lending could enjoy some success, said Jake Adelstein, a Tokyo-based writer and yakuza watcher, whose life is set to be dramatised in a biopic starring British actor Daniel Radcliffe.

驻东京的作家及黑社会观察家杰克•阿德尔斯坦(Jake Adelstein)表示，收紧向黑社会的贷款可能会取得一定成功。阿德尔斯坦的经历将会搬上由英国演员丹尼尔•雷德克利弗(Daniel Radcliffe)主演的一部传记电影。

But he warned that loans may simply be channelled to so-called “associate members”, who do not show up in checks.

不过他警告说，这些贷款可能会由所谓“准会员”出面申请，而在核查过程中这些人的名字不会出现。