Prosecutors are demanding an 18-month prison term for a former employee of nonbank moneylender Nichiei Co. for trying to pressure a loan guarantor sell body parts to repay a debt. In Monday's Tokyo District Court hearing, Eisuke Arai, 25, pleaded guilty and tearfully apologized to the plaintiff. "If I was not able to fulfill my quota, my boss yelled at me," Arai said, adding that Nichiei President Kazuo Matsuda was one of those who reprimanded him. "It was not unusual for collectors to yell at guarantors to force them to make repayments." Arai also revealed that it was a Nichiei policy to loan as much money as possible to borrowers, have them pay the interest and rely on guarantors to repay the principal. Matsuda, 77, had earlier said he never met or talked to Arai and denied the company was systematically involved in the use of force to get borrowers to repay loans. Arai allegedly harassed the 62-year-old Chiba guarantor of a loan worth about 11.5 million yen. Arai phoned the man more than 10 times between April and June 1998 and told him that he could earn 3 million yen by selling a kidney or 1 million yen for an eye, it said.
