Akiko Fujita took a look at a man in Japan who’s making a killing selling prosthetic fingers:

• Prosthetic makers generally get business from those that have been in serious accidents or have had some forms of cancer.
• However in Japan there is a large demand for prosthetic fingers from current and former members of the Yakuza.
• In the Yakuza transgressions are punished by the severing of a finger. Average Japanese people have come to associate missing fingers with the Yakuza.
• For those who have decided to leave the organization this can make it incredibly difficult to find a job, as employers avoid those with former mob connections.
• For $3,000 individuals can get a carefully painted prosthetic finger that is almost indistinguishable from the real thing.
• People normally keep several fingers with them so that they can ensure that the prosthetic always matches their skin tone.
• It’s not all people looking for a job that get the prosthetics – Yakuza members invited to a grandchild’s birthday party might get one so that the family doesn’t know of the mob connection.

Read more about the business of making prosthetic fingers, transgressions that can lead you to lose a finger, and more over here.

Source: ABC News

Via: Marginal Revolution, JDP