Via ZAKZAK:
Hiroshima Prefectural Police announced Mar 18 that their Bosozoku/Youth Crimes Division, which was responsible for controlling the activities of “Bosozoku” or Japanese youth biker gangs, would merge with the Youth Development Division on April 1 to become the new Youth Crimes Division. Most of the gangs have disbanded, creating less of a need to monitor them.
Since installing the Counter-Bosozoku Office in 1994, a Division with the word “Bosozoku” in it will disappear from the Prefectural Police after 11 years.
Bosozoku clashed with riot police in 1999’s Ebisu Matsuri (festival). Since then, a movement to eliminate the Bosozoku came into being, with a Bosozoku Banishment Ordinance and other measures. At the end of last year, membership in Bosozoku had decreased to under one third its peak number (in 1999), 119 people.
My Comment: I knew that Bosozoku were out of style, but at this rate maybe they’ll disappear entirely within a few years.
When I was living in Kyoto, any night that I was at my (ex)girlfriend’s apartment on Marutamachi I could hear the bosozoku gunning their engines past. This was only 1~2 years ago so I have trouble imagining that they’ve vanished so quickly, but then fads change fast in Japan.
I’m up in Nagano and I’ve noticed a significant decline in the annoying buzzing engines that whir past my apartment, too. Good riddance! Though I doubt the Japanese police, at least in this area, can take much credit for chasing them off or breaking up the gangs. Stories of bosozoku bullying the police in my town were told far and wide.