Why Japan has the largest market for prosthetic fingers (6 photos)

This task does not have an asterisk, you can definitely guess why. And it’s funny that this is due to existing sociocultural characteristics. If you can call it that way, the culture of cutting off fingers among the Japanese mafia is the yakuza.





How gracefully it is put on, and most importantly - how similar it is to a real finger!

It is believed that the Japanese mafia has more than 100 thousand members - in different groups throughout the country.

Whose fingers are cut off in Japan?

The funny thing is that everyone. Everyone thinks that little fingers or other fingers are cut off for a serious offense against the clan of one of its members. Or for debts, but different fingers.

The ritual, known as yubizume, is a "payment" for yakuza members for doing things that go against the yakuza code, such as using drugs, getting into fights, or stealing.



This person doesn't understand at first...

But for a long time there was still a tendency that the little finger on the left hand was taken away from all men who wanted to join the clan. As proof of their determination and that they are not weaklings or cowards.

In general, even more fingers were cut off in Japan than in Mexico when there was a war between factions.



In addition to the finger and tattoos, the title of Yakuza cannot be washed off so easily

Good deed and yakuza nice

Initially, Shintaro Hayashi, a prosthetologist who focused specifically on prosthetic fingers, set out to help people who want to escape their criminal past. Or completely - they fled from the Yakuza and are hiding from the mafia. They need to wear a prosthesis because a missing finger is too much of an identification mark.

Before that, he made silicone prostheses for women with breast cancer, simply - he made breast prostheses. But women suggested a new direction to him. They were worried about their family's reputation and complained that the father would go to his son's school and there they would see that he was missing a finger. They will also decide that their son’s father is a yakuza (or maybe they will decide correctly).



I love this photo of the Yakuza, and also the fundoshi - very colorful

And it’s simply impossible to find a job without a finger; employers are too afraid to see the “hands of the yakuza.” They think that such a person will be rude to clients and visitors. And if you make a very realistic prosthesis, almost no one will know that it is a fake.

Fingers are an expensive pleasure

A single hand-made prosthetic finger costs $3,000. However, silicone prosthetics wear out or require repainting. So you have to go for maintenance once a year.



Making a prosthetic finger like this is very expensive and difficult, it must be an old tattoo

In general, it’s wise to buy two prosthetics - a pale shade for winter, when your hands are cold. And a warmer shade for the heat, so as not to differ too much from the rest of the hand color. But it is quite expensive, especially for those who need a finger to find a job.



This is how the fitting process works

There is good news! The growing demand for prosthetic fingers suggests that more and more people want to give up their criminal past, and clans are falling apart due to good police work. And the members of the Yakuza are aging along with the entire population, foreign mafia are infiltrating into it, and they are no longer in a particular hurry to cut their fingers.