Doctor held over ritual maiming of gang victim

[emad]

From Richard Lloyd Parry in Tokyo



IT IS one of the most infamous and chilling rites of the Japanese mafia, or yakuza. When a gangster has failed in his duty, he atones by chopping off the top joint of his little finger with a heavy knife and presenting it to his godfather.

The punishment, familiar from a thousand Japanese gangster films, is known as yubitsume, or finger-cutting, and serves as a demonstration of the offender’s sincerity and his tolerance of agonising pain.

But this week a new twist in the grisly tradition came to light when a Tokyo doctor was arrested for overseeing a finger-chopping ritual under local anaesthetic — and claiming it on the health service.

The doctor, Shin Ki Tae, a South Korean, administered the anaesthetic at his clinic to a Japanese businessman who had gone bankrupt, leaving him in debt to Kyoji Kakutani, a gangster who had invested in it. After Mr Kakutani amputated the finger with a hammer and chisel, Dr Shin popped the digit into a bottle of formaldehyde, handed it to its former owner, and charged the whole thing to the Japanese health system.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1691577,00.html

[yankeeinlouisiana]

1. Maybe it would have been

better if he just paid cash.

:eyes:

[bhunt70]

2. At least it didn't cost an arm and a leg.

[Kraklen]

3. What a wimpy gang.

Anesthesia? Amateurs.

[despairing optimist]

4. I wonder if Bill Frist read this story and thought, "Hmm. There's an idea"