Small time Gangster

Low level punks, the kind that you were when you were in high school are called yankees in Japan. And no, they are not from New York. 

They are the kind of kids who would cause mischief in all your classes and would often drop out and work at McDonalds. Well the McDonalds thing is less true here as it is seen as a slightly more respectable job (like I swear they all speak a little English and know just what to say when my Japanese comprehension fails for 'would you like to eat this here or is this take out?'). Also there are less McDonalds on average so it would make sense for the most degrading job to be something that is extremely common. Which just so happens to be convenience stores. I would say that working at the local 7-11, Lawson, or FamilyMart would shame me to pieces, but it is actually a really convenient job for the elderly without any higher education. And in Japan it is very different from America in terms of higher education. It really does separate blue collar from white collar, but also there is no astigmatism here that blue collar is demeaning or bad in anyway. Ok, maybe a small one. But kids can go straight into the blue collar work force from high school and start earning money, which can be a heck of a lot more appealing to them than another 4 years of education with an uncertain future career. Really, the job market in Japan is truly wretched right now; I think last year there was more than 30% of the graduates without jobs. 

But that is not what we are talking about is it? We are talking about yankees today. The term actually originated from the Yankee that you are all familiar with, being northeastern Americans. They have since borrowed it and changed the meaning just a bit. They are pretty much just delinquents. The school skipping, cigarette smoking, disheveled looking punks. They are trademarked by differences from cultural norms, such as dyed hair, piercings and ...odd clothing. They are often seen smoking, sometimes (often) underage, and will hang out in groups. They are not all that wealthy and will normally ride around on this type of cheap little bike. It looks like a shortened version of a motor cycle but it rides a lot slower. It is kind of like trying to still look cool at 1/3rd the price. Apparently these bikes are also pretty easy to hot wire and steal as well, meaning that the bikes might not always belong to the person riding it. More expensive versions that are becoming popular are actually a a legit moped. And they are huge. I think you could easily fit 3-4 people on it. They are often decorated by LEDs, much louder speaker system (you can actually hear them coming from their music) and have a really plush padding for seating. I call them boats. Nothing I can say can really describe these accurately enough. More adult versions might be seen driving one of those  tattooed cars with the dragons and anime characters on it. 

The dress code can vary it seems, but a pretty common look is baggy sweats and trainers  with the odd pant leg rolled up and a t-shirt or sweat shirt. But don't think of new sweats with the tags still on as you might see in Brooklyn on a night out, they care less about fashion than that. A stereotyped school girl, as they still have to attend school, is said to be trademarked by the longer skirts and possibly less make up than most. Though I have never really been witness to that. What I have been witness to is wearing their trainers/sweats under their skirts, which is not really acceptable by school standards. Most girls in school will actually roll up their skirts and belt them up high, pretty standard across the world right? I still remember rolling up my ugly maroon jersey shorts for middle school gym class that they didn't bother differentiating between guy and girl styles or sizes, and still not managing to really appeasing either. 

As far as their accessories go, I feel like hair dye is a mandatory. It doesn't have to be flamboyant, just the orange or brown, a fading yellow as is most common. And then piercings or tattoos. Most are still too young for the tattoos, but I know that they can manage to get the piercings  I have two boys in my schools with some ear cartilage ones. Personally I have two cartilage ones in one of my ears and my students like to jokingly call me a yankee. I have had to explain to them that in western culture this is actually exceedingly normal and tattoos are also pretty much downright common now. They were shocked to learn this. And then I showed them a group normal American girls and pointed out that one had a foot tattoo, one had a shoulder one and then the various piercings. 

These yankees have a decently rude attitude and use really bad language. Though keep in mind, there are several forms of language in Japan going from formal to super slangy and only spoken amongst friends. Pretty much you can expect them to use this casual language with anyone, which comes off as rude, and where one might say obaasan in reference to an old lady (variations being obaasan, obaachan, obaa, sobo, obahan roughly from most polite to least polite), they would go with obahan which is really not so respectful and you should never really say it to a person (also it is kansai dialect). 

It is said that these punks are kind of territorial kind of like how gangs used to be(?) in the United States and that they are rough with each other and will get in fights fro said territory, or possibly over a girl (my image of them is based on primal needs). I have never really seen them do anything except for hang out and smoke late at night by the kamogawa (river in Kyoto). Oh, and play their music kind of loud over crappy speakers on their modified bikes, or much nicer ones from their boats. But again this all gives them a bad image. 

Overall they are harmless and if you are nice and polite to them, they will return the favor, but of course if you come off superiorly, they will mock you mercilessly.

short bike. notice the street tires

for size comparison against a more normal sized (though still small) rice rocket.