26 members of motorcycle gang arrested over brawl

Should be interested in how many police it took to arrest 26 violent gang members, when you routinely see 4 or 5 police around a single bicycle rear light violation.

But refreshing to see the police doing their job, upholding the law, and not running away...

Sounds like a great precedent there in Arakawa, Graham.

The cops really need powers to seize and destroy these antisocial pr!cks' bikes, plus better support and positive role models for the kids, not just yaks.

Nice to see that it only took the police about FIVE MONTHS to arrest them.

One 19-year-old member of the Saitama gang was quoted by police as saying, “We could not let them invade our territory,” TV Asahi reported.

Child.

i thought the bosozoku was dying out in Japan!

I hope they are. I'm sick of idiots riding their dumb, noisy bikes near my house at all hours, with their favorite bitchboy sat behind them. If I could get my hands on a rifle, I'd be in jail for mass murder right now.

I am so glad the cops ran these guys out of Arakawa years ago.

I'm looking at some of these comment about the members of these gangs being "blights," ""scum," "antisocial pr!cks" et al., and it occurs to me that most, if not all, of these comments likely come from posters who've never set foot in a Japanese public school for any appreciable time.

The kids that make up these gangs we're not monsters from the start. They didn't just make a decision in their crib one day to grow up and join a gang. And for the most part, they aren't even necessarily monsters now. There are some pretty decent kids cuaght up in these groups for no other reason than the lack of realistic alternatives. They're symptoms of an education, economic, and social system that makes no allowances for a significant subset of society that "fails" to be what society insists on them being. And those expectations can particularly unforgiving in Japan.

I can't count the number of kids I've seen the Japanese public school system practically go out of its way to shove these kids into the kind of life that involves gangs, drugs, and crime. Kids who don't fit the mold of the model student are often left with few choices after not only high school, but even as early as junior high school.

Like I said, these kids didn't become antisocial in a vacuum. Society needs to accept more responsibility for its culpability in creating these "scum" than just hoping the police will chase them off to the next town.

You know I live in Sagamihara area and there is often noisy idiots driving around on what sounds like a 50cc bike with the exhaust cut off.

I find it extremely annoying that they speed past police, and yes street racers also speed past police...and the police do nothing! They just tuck in their balls.

Recently at my local train station there was 5 gangsta cars, they were parked in a non parking zone drinking and smoking on their car bonnets. There was rubbish everywhere...the koban was about 50 meters down the road...but yeah they did nothing.

Saitama?? Hachioji also is bad, with all of these scum loud lazy biker gangs messing around at 2 am with their stupid loud motorcyles! The cops need to keep cracking down on these young scums!

Downtown Sapporo, lunchtime yesterday. Two of these so called 'bosozuku' riding tandem slowly down ekimae dori toward Susukino, blocking both lanes and weaving deliberately so an entire line of traffic has to stay plodding behind them. That's not just letting off steam - it's public intimidation. Nobody even beeps a horn because they're so-called toughs. No cops on hand to give them a ticket or impound their bike.

At the very least they'd think twice if their little hobby cost 2-man a pop or forced them to go pick up their bike from the pound. In many other countries they'd be dragged off their crotch rockets and beaten by other motorists. But in Japan - the civilized society - all one has to do to scare the public is break a few rules.

Society should not tolerate this kind of behavior, because it only encourages more and feeds the fantasy that they're tough biker dudes and everyone should be scared of them. Where are the police?

FizzBit: really? This bike gang Vs bike gang has been going on for decades.Nothing new or alarming here. It's young boys blowing off steam against other young boys. Northern Saitama there is no other excitement up there.

I can understand these fools in their 20s doing it, but what the hell are the parents of these 14 year old kids doing?

It takes a brawl for the cops to arrest them? I'd be satisfied if the cops did their jobs to begin with by arresting these clowns for reckless driving, disturbing the peace, and evading police..... it happens on an almost daily basis where I live.

LFRAgainJun. 19, 2013 - 01:21PM JST

...these kids didn't become antisocial in a vacuum. Society needs to accept more responsibility for its culpability in creating these "scum" than just hoping the police will chase them off to the next town.

I hear what you're saying, but if "society" as you put it means the school system, I think first and foremost, the parents need to accept responsibility before the schools. Society is made up of parents. The main job for schools is to educate, and the main job for parents is to 'parent' (guide, discipline, encourage, develop), and yet so many parents rely on schools to 'bring up' their children. Schools also provide many options (as papasmurf mentioned) as far as extra-curricular activities are concerned (not just soccer or baseball) to keep students from straying off the path.

What the police need to do is much more simple. They need to do their jobs and protect the innocent victims/bystanders and let criminals know when they're breaking the law. Otherwise, these punks run free and there is no end to their childish acts. Sometimes, in the case of 14 yr olds, getting in trouble with the law is enough to set them straight, and even with a record, they can still make a decent living.

I had a fight (by myself) with a bike gang in Fujisawa many years ago. It didn't go very well.

Throw them all in a locked dark room together for a week.

happened in January & arrested now.............very "timely" haha.

These punks aren't gangs just groups of misfits being juvenile, blights on the landscape

At the very least they'd think twice if their little hobby cost 2-man a pop or forced them to go pick up their bike from the pound. In many other countries they'd be dragged off their crotch rockets and beaten by other motorists. But in Japan - the civilized society - all one has to do to scare the public is break a few rules.

The police take the softly softly approach and these punks know it.

In the real world these guys wouldn't last 2 minutes and they are hardly what would be deemed tough bikers, a real biker club would have these guys for breakfast.

JustPassinByJun. 20, 2013 - 09:12AM JST

I disagree that the premise of schools is simply to educate. I believe that if the students spend the majority of their waking hours there, the school also shares those jobs you assigned exclusively to parents.

Completely agree. I believe I said that the schools main job is to educate. Like you say, because kids spend so much time at school, and also because many parents don't do enough parenting, I believe that by simply attending school, the children are learning life lessons and values (ie. adhering to schedules and rules, being social, participating in extra-curricular activities, competeing with peers, being rewarded, being disciplined, etc. etc.), however, I still think it's fair to say that without the education, schools would essentially be 'babysitters', and most parents I know would not want their kids being raised solely by their babysitters.

All I wanted to say in my comment to LFRAgain is that schools may share a ROLE in developing the students' maturity, and quite possibly even share some responsibility, but certainly the parents hold the majority of the responsibility and accountability for students' behaviour. If schools are going to be held responsible and accountable for the way these kids act, then shouldn't the schools bail these kids out of jail if/when they get arrested? Shouldn't the schools pay for any damage they do to public property? Shouldn't the schools take care of their hospital expenses if they get injured? Shouldn't the parents shut up even if they're unsatisfied with the way schools are run?

Let them all beat the tar out of each other. Maybe we can be rid of them after that. Useless fools.

Sons of 'Anaki'

LFRAgain,

Great post, thanks. My heart bleeds for these kids, and I stand by the term antisocial pr!cks because my ears bleed too (figuratively) when they blast past our house at 3am. My little child is terrified by them, and drivers from Sapporo to Sasebo are intimidated.

On so many levels, I applaud these young people for extending a rigid middle finger to mediocrity, to shouganai, to the forced homogenization and predetermination of society. I wish we could harness their rage, and pull Japan kicking and screaming out of its somnambulistic stupor.

So how do we get them off the meth, off their bikes, and take them from zeros to heroes?

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=saitama+honjo&hl=en&ll=36.254241,139.14957&spn=0.066169,0.128918&sll=36.264207,139.612885&sspn=0.52928,1.031342&hnear=Honjo,+Saitama+Prefecture,+Japan&t=m&z=14&layer=c&cbll=36.254003,139.149462&panoid=kh92BKOE2fDdAWj4YdboQQ&cbp=12,111.69,,0,-5.51

Google street view outside the station - shows a place stuck in time warp - nothing has changed here since the 1970's. Explains a lot really. Deadend town, bored NEET's forming gangs.

Tahoochi said

The main job for schools is to educate, and the main job for parents is to 'parent' (guide, discipline, encourage, develop), and yet so many parents rely on schools to 'bring up' their children. Schools also provide many options (as papasmurf mentioned) as far as extra-curricular activities are concerned (not just soccer or baseball) to keep students from straying off the path.

I disagree that the premise of schools is simply to educate. I believe that if the students spend the majority of their waking hours there, the school also shares those jobs you assigned exclusively to parents.

But even if the burden lies completely on the parents, what happens when parents can't or simply won't accept any of the responsibilities of the 'main job' you have described? It is easy to blame the parents and leave it at that, but it accomplishes nothing. Japan has issues dealing with a certain sect young people who for whatever reason feel they have no place in the current societal strata and therefore create their own parallel society.

And having worked with such young men and women, I can assure people these young people do not want to emulate the yakuza or any other such nonsense.

Tahoochi,

Sorry if I misinterpreted you. I agree with all your points in general. I don't believe in nanny schools nor monster parent philosophies myself.

I wonder, though, if we aren't talking through different prisms. You mention the consequences of having these type of young people around (public damage costs, hospital expenses, etc.). Though I agree that is a concern, I am more concerned about stopping them from acting in ways that would put them in such positions in the first place. If the parents do not or cannot take on their responsibilities as parents and nothing is done at a societal level, then we have resigned ourselves that this is going to happen sometimes and just accept it and move on.

This seems counterproductive to the outcome that I believe everyone wants. If it's not the parents though then who? Schools could be one possible option. I have witnessed a number of problem youths that have turned their lives around because of the guidance provided for by teachers who cared for them. I am not saying this is the answer (I don't THE answer exists), but it could be one strategy to fight the problem.

This happened in January and the cops are only arresting people now? Seems odd.

spudmanreincarnated: you shouldn't assume every gaijin lives around Tokyo. I had no idea. This don't happen down here in masuda-ville

One 19-year-old member of the Saitama gang was quoted by police as saying, We could not let them invade our territory

What does it even mean to have a "territory" for these bike rats?

Does your territory mean you're the only ones who can buzz the local train station and malls in the middle of the night??

Put them all in same cell.

Stupid people. They are too stupid to realize that the territory they claim as theirs & fight for, actually belongs to the government.

@LFR

There are some pretty decent kids cuaght up in these groups for no other reason than the lack of realistic alternatives.

Now I can understand that logic when talking about those poor kids in the Middle East who are given a choice between starving to death or joining a terrorist group to put food on the table, but honestly are you suggesting the education in Japan is so bad that these kids had no other "realistic alternatives"? There are thousands of alternatives available to comparatively affluent kids living in a first world country. They could join a club at school. They could do boy scouts. They could play their Nintendos in the park. They could do some volunteer work. They could hang out at a family restaurant for 6 hours and make full use of the drink bar. Their options are limitless.

But no, they consciously choose to be hoodlums. They get a kick out of breaking the law, so the law needs to put them in line. I agree, somehow society probably failed them down the line somewhere. But society fails everyone. It has failed me countless times, but I never resorted to joining a gang and being a public nuisance.

How do you suggest society should deal with them?

When I rented a flat in Nagareyama in 2011 there was a nightly chorus of bikes revving and zooming up and down the road... some night being chased by a police car. Three weeks I was there and it was annoying - I can't imagine how depressing it must be for the people who can't just pack and fly away.

When it comes to being in a motorcycle gang here, you have only 3 thing in the job description-

Brawl Hang out in front of a convenient store Ride around at 3am revving up your engine to wake up old people who wake up at 5am anyways.

Waste of taxpayers money to get involved in that. Why not let the bozos settle this among themselves? It is entirely voluntary.

i thought the bosozoku was dying out in Japan!

Saitama gang attacked them with baseball bats. The Gunma gang did not have any weapons.

wow what a GANG. They are just kids nothing else. Japan Today unnecessarily highlighting the event, by this news those kiddos (Diaper babies) gaining fame as Gang member.

Boys being boys, how come the invaders weren't charged?

As confidence in the education system, government and economy wanes, inccidents like this will become more prevalent. SPECULATION: baseball bats won't do, and a black market in guns could flood Japan, as these groups grow more organized and fanatical. Unles the police grow a pair and crack down HARD on this behavior.