Reimagining Mobit - The Legitimization of Japanese Payday Loans

A few years back I wrote about Japanese payday loans HERE. At the time, I noted how discourses of gender were marshalled to appeal to men and women in need of high-interest low-oversight finances to support their bourgeoise dreams.

Since then, there has been a huge development in the payday loan landscape. The company Mobit, whose ads I analyzed before, has merged with Sumitomo Bank (SMBC), Japan's third largest bank and where I put my savings. This change that has resulted in a rethinking of their ad campaign, which is all the more evident due to using the same actors in different ways. Gone is the overt sexuality of actress Natsuna's clothing, as is the chic fashion of Naoto Takenaka, and the implied narratives of May-December romance / sugardaddying these ads contained.

Instead, we see both actors clad in the green blazer of SMBC, the uniformity of their clothing effectuating a democratization of roles and relations, as well as a reduction of sexualized narratives. In fact, the only nod to gender is Takenaka's neck tie and Natsuna's open neck shirt, which still implies the common Japanese office relation of older male superior and younger female OL (office lady, or menial worker there half for labour, half to get married to young male employees).

This use of uniforms also repositions both figures from mysterious characters in their own stories to employees in the service of SMBC customers. The flowers floating around both actors represent the bouquets traditionally placed in front of Japanese shops or businesses to celebrate their opening, and thus signal that SMBC Mobit loans are open for business in helping clients realize their modest financial dreams.

Finally, whereas previous Mobit ads focused on the characters and images of their implied narrative, the SMBC Mobit ad also features an offer of 3900 bonus T-point card points for customers who clear the conditions for taking out a loan. This signals a change in target market as well, from the desperately dreaming borrowers of previous ads to more responsible bank clients, who count up bonus points whenever they buy everyday goods and groceries.

All this serves to legitimize payday loans, once shady organizations called 'sarakin' (or 'salaryman money', mostly indicating personal loans at high interest taken out by working men or housewives). The excessive repayment demands of sarakin companies incited the Japanese government in 2002 to empower paralegals to start legal actions against excessive loan payments, and for years Japanese TV and public transit were blanketed with ads for legal help clawing back money from excessive loan repayments. This was reflected in popular culture in manga about high interest loan companies, such as Naniwa Monogatari, Manami no Teiou, and the most recent and ruthless depiction of unscrupulous loan agencies, Yamikin no Ushijimakun.

All these developments all cast payday loans in a very unflattering light, and thus mergers with respectable financial institutions have become the norm. In this way, high interest loan agencies have acquired a sheen of respectability, and re-legitimized the entrenched cultural practice of acquiring Shakkin (借金 or borrowed money) that features heavily in Japanese classical theatre, popular culture, and daily life.

Sources

'Sarakin'. Definition from Goo.ne.jp.
https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/89531/meaning/m0u/