Loans in Japan

TV over here is full of commercials for loans and you'll also see a ton of loan signs as you walk down the street. This leads me to think that many Japanese folk are living a life of debt.

Using the loan information on this site, I see that students can take out loans of up to 3,000,000 yen (about 27,745 USD). Some of these loans are interest free if returned within 30 days but the interest rates can go up to 29.2%

Some loan companies in Japan have been exposed as using Yakuza services to come knocking peoples door when payments were delayed.

As a student back in the UK, the only loan I took out was one for just over a thousand pounds - used the money to get a desktop. Was the best investment I've made to date. Without that computer, I wouldn't have been able to self study computing and without that experience I wouldn't have been hired by Japan Airlines etc etc.

I suppose credit cards can be counted as a loan too and when I got hold of one I found it too easy to buy stuff and saw most of my income going to pay off credit card bills. I soon decided to get rid of my credit cards and only use cash cards meaning that I can only spend what I have.
As of today I dont use credit cards - only cards that are tied to what I can spend from my bank account.

The other loan that I took out is one for our house. The interest rates for houses are incredibly low - about 1%. You can read more about buying a house in Japan in this previous post.

Have you taken a loan out before? What are interest rates like in your region? Do big men (or women) wielding crowbars come knocking on the door when payments are delayed?