Japanese Police Losing Patience With Violent Teenage Biker Gangs

Ryo Kawamura rode his first motorcycle at age 13--without a license. Soon he was stealing bikes and rebuilding them, taking his flashy, souped-up wheels out for wild rides with friends.

“Riding strange bikes, making a big noise--it’s fun,” says Kawamura, now 25. “It’s a kind of release.”

Though widely despised for their ear-shattering races down nighttime streets, Japan’s teenage biker gangs have long been considered just a nuisance, and have even been grudgingly accepted as a largely harmless means for wayward youths to let off steam.

But those days appear to be over. Police are cracking down on the “bosozoku,” which means “reckless running tribes,” for violent crimes that go well beyond the bounds of teenage excess.

The biker situation reflects an alarming trend toward violence among Japanese youth. Japan has recently seen a series of stabbings and hijackings committed by teens, and murders by juveniles are rising.

The forces behind the changes are fiercely debated. Some blame Japan’s group-oriented society for being out of step with an individualist era. Others say wealth and indulgent parents have created a generation of spoiled brats sorely lacking in self-control.

“We’ve got things going on that didn’t happen in the past,” said Yoko Uehara, 59, an employee at a Japanese candy shop. “I worry about my grandchildren.”

Some of the bosozoku antics have become annual media events. Hundreds of hot-rodders and bikers led police on several chases around Mt. Fuji over the New Year’s holiday. The cat-and-mouse is televised on the news every year.

But the National Police Agency says that, off camera, bikers are increasingly involved in rapes, robberies, drugs and deadly fights.

“You’ve got bikers riding around with wooden sticks, bats and metal pipes, and they’ll use them to hit patrol cars and police,” said Shoichi Koguchi of the police in Fukuoka prefecture, where authorities have boosted efforts to eradicate the gangs. “They’re becoming more criminal.”

Membership in biker gangs has actually fallen, from 36,000 in 1995 to 28,000 in 1999, the National Police Agency says. But the drop has led small groups to band together, creating huge organizations that compete for power and territory.

They’re also strengthening ties with the “yakuza,” Japan’s criminal underworld, the agency says. Gangsters offer protection to the bikers, who become a sort of reserve army, filing easily into the yakuza ranks as they get older.

Even Kawamura, who has retired from his biker gang, says the gangs aren’t what they used to be.

“Lately, some riders have no qualms about killing,” he says. “They can’t control themselves.”

Kawamura spent his youth rolling down dark highways, revving out gasoline-powered renditions of Japan’s national anthem or the “Wedding March.” He joined the yakuza when he left his gang.

He stole almost every motorcycle he’s ever ridden. He says he’s quit the yakuza and has a construction job, but he hasn’t completely cut himself off from the trappings of biker culture.

A high-backed motorcycle seat sits on a bookshelf in his small apartment. Robes embroidered with Buddhist phrases, a common decoration on biker uniforms, are displayed on hangers.

Catching the bikers is a perennial problem. Because most of the gang members are minors, it is hard to crack down on them with stiff punishments. And police on high-speed chases are reluctant to do anything that might endanger the lives of other drivers.

“It’s really hard to nab them,” said Koguchi, the Fukuoka police officer. “They don’t have license plates on their vehicles, and they often wear masks. So even if we snap their pictures, we can’t prove who’s who.”

Still, a tougher police stance has pushed arrests up by more than 70% since 1995. The National Police Agency is also closing off bikers’ gathering spots at night, asking service stations not to sell them gasoline and conducting anti-biker talks at schools.

Many Japanese say they’re unimpressed.

“I don’t work at night, so I don’t have to deal with it,” says Nobuo Kojima, a cabdriver in Tokyo. “But I’ve heard about bikers hitting patrol cars and all that. The Japanese police are just way too soft.”