日歩

• Reading: ひぶ
• Romaji: hibu
• Kanji breakdown: 日 (nichi/hi) — day; 歩 (ho/bu/fu) — step; rate (traditional financial usage)
• Pronunciation: /çi.bɯ/

Meaning

Daily interest rate. The amount of interest accrued per day, expressed as a rate per unit of principal.

Traditionally expressed as a rate per 100 yen per day (e.g. 日歩5銭 = 0.05 yen per 100 yen per day, equivalent to roughly 18.25% per annum). A system rooted in pre-war Japanese lending practices that persisted in consumer finance and loan agreements well into the postwar era. Now largely superseded by annual percentage rate (年利) notation, but still appears in older contracts, legal disputes, and historical finance texts.

Examples

1. 消費者金融では日歩換算で非常に高い利率が設定されていた。 Consumer finance companies used to set extremely high interest rates when calculated on a daily basis.
2. 借入金の利息を日歩で計算する古い方法が一部の契約に残っている。 The old method of calculating interest on borrowings using a daily rate survives in some contracts.
3. 日歩での利子計算は現在では年利換算に変わっている。 The daily-rate method of interest calculation has now been replaced by annual percentage rate notation.

Usage Guide

Context: finance, money lending, legal, interest rates

Tone: formal

Origin & History

Compound of 日 (day) and 歩 (rate; the traditional unit 歩/bu representing one-tenth of 割/wari). In pre-modern Japanese finance, 歩 (bu) was used as a unit of proportional rate.

Cultural Context

Era: Pre-modern to Modern

Generation: Finance specialists

Social background: Finance/Legal