General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Ushijima the Loan Shark (闇金ウシジマくん)

Ushijima the Loan Shark (闇金ウシジマくん, Yamikin Ushijima-kun) is a Japanese manga by Shohei Manabe about Kaoru Ushijima, the ruthless proprietor of an illegal moneylending business called Kaukau Finance, and the debtors whose lives collapse after they borrow from him. Serialized irregularly in Shogakukan's Weekly Big Comic Spirits from 2004, it has sold more than 10 million collected volumes, won the 56th Shogakukan Manga Award in the general category, and spawned three late-night television drama seasons and four theatrical films starring Takayuki Yamada between 2010 and 2016.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Original run	Serialized in Weekly Big Comic Spirits (Shogakukan) from 2004²
Premise	Kaukau Finance lends at 50 percent interest every ten days, the illegal rate known as "togo" (10日5割)³^•⁴
Circulation	Tankobon sales passed 10 million copies¹
Award	56th Shogakukan Manga Award, general category (2011)¹
Live action	3 TV drama seasons (2010, 2014, 2016) and 4 films (2012, 2014, and two in 2016), all starring Takayuki Yamada¹
Spin-off	Yamikin Saihara-san, 15 episodes on MBS/TBS Dramaism from September 20, 2022⁵
Author's follow-up	Kujo no Taizai (Sins of Kujo), serialized from October 2020, over 4 million copies, Netflix live-action series announced for 2026⁶

Spoilers

Story and premise

The series follows Kaoru Ushijima, president of the outlaw finance company Kaukau Finance, who lends money at the illegal rate of 50 percent per ten days and collects without mercy. His stated motto is "the world is a struggle to take; if it is take or be taken, I choose to take."¹ The people who come to him are those turned away by legitimate lenders: office workers, part-timers, sex workers, hosts, delinquent youths, and welfare recipients, whose fates begin to move once they borrow from Ushijima.¹

Each story arc centers on a debtor and traces how debt, desire, and desperation push the character downward, while Ushijima functions as the connective figure who appears in each episode.⁷ The work is described by its licensor as a problem novel that realistically depicts the decline of people abandoned by mainstream financial institutions, and by the drama's broadcaster as confronting themes of social disparity and the working poor.¹^•⁸ Its social content has been used in Japanese sociology education, with the manga cited in university teaching on poverty, safety nets, precarious labor, and social stratification.⁹

The title's "-kun" suffix takes its cue from the friendly names of consumer-finance automatic contract machines popular at the time, such as Acom's "Mujin-kun" and Aiful's "Ojido-san."⁷

Publication and sales

Manabe began the series irregularly in Weekly Big Comic Spirits in 2004.² Circulation grew steadily across the franchise's run: promotional material for the 2012 film cited 5 million copies, the film's distributor cited over 6 million, and by the time of the 2016 final season Shogakukan's licensing site reported the total had passed 10 million.¹⁰^•¹¹^•¹ The manga won the general-category prize at the 56th Shogakukan Manga Awards in 2011.¹

Television dramas

The first live-action adaptation was a late-night serial produced by MBS for the TBS network, nine episodes broadcast from October 12 to December 14, 2010, with Takayuki Yamada as Ushijima, Nana Katase as the drama-original character Chiaki, and Kyosuke Yabe as the loyal employee Karasawa; it drew a viewer rating of 2.3 percent.³^•⁸ Producer Masatoshi Yamaguchi, who had earlier produced the Fuji TV finance-drama series Naniwa Kinyudo, conceived the adaptation after leaving Fuji TV in 2005 and persuaded the Big Comic Spirits editorial department almost immediately; because the protagonist ran an illegal lending operation, there were fears during production that the series might not be allowed on air at all.¹²

Season 2 returned in January 2014, again nine episodes on TBS/MBS, with Go Ayano joining as Inui and a storyline in which Kaukau Finance itself faces a crisis.⁵ Season 3 aired from July 2016 and, according to Yamaguchi, took on episodes of the original that had been called absolute taboos for live-action adaptation, bringing back the rival female loan shark Akane Saihara (Maryjun Takahashi) from the second film.¹³

Films

The franchise produced four theatrical films, all directed by Yamaguchi and starring Yamada.¹ The first, a 129-minute feature released on August 25, 2012 and distributed by S.D.P, expanded the late-night drama into a violent, comic entertainment; it added Yuko Oshima as the freeter Miku Suzuki and Kento Hayashi as the event-circle leader Jun Ogawa, alongside a large new cast.¹⁴^•¹¹ It received the Cut Above Award for Outstanding Debut at Japan Cuts 2012.¹⁴

Part 2 opened on May 16, 2014, adapting the manga's "Yankee-kun" and "Host-kun" arcs with Suda Masaki among the new cast.¹⁵^•¹⁶ In 2016 two films were released back to back: Part 3 on September 22 and The Final on October 22, the latter a 130-minute conclusion that reveals Ushijima's origin and follows his former middle-school classmate Takemoto into a poverty-business dormitory called Junai no Ie.¹⁵^•¹⁷ Counting dramas, films, and the spin-off, the live-action franchise ran to eight titles.¹⁸

Spin-off and afterlife

A spin-off drama, Yamikin Ushijima-kun Gaiden: Yamikin Saihara-san, aired for 15 episodes on the MBS/TBS Dramaism slot from September 20, 2022, following Ushijima's rival loan shark Akane Saihara. It draws on both the main series and the side-story manga Ramen Namerikawa-san, which features Ushijima's arch-nemesis Namerikawa.⁵^•¹⁸ Even after the 2016 conclusion, the series has continued to record high streaming viewership in Japan.¹⁸

Manabe's follow-up manga, Kujo no Taizai (Sins of Kujo), began serialization in Big Comic Spirits in October 2020 and had reached 15 volumes and more than 4 million copies in print when Netflix announced a live-action adaptation for its 2026 global lineup, produced by TBS and starring Yuya Yagira as the lawyer Taiza Kujo.⁶^•¹⁹

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026