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.

Japan Fashion: Autumn-wear 2012

90's grunge where seems to be in full swing this autumn with all of the flannels and plaids that nearly every store is selling in prediction for this years most popular fall wear.

You would think it weird, because I certainly do, but they are even shipping USED AMERICAN flannels into Japan and selling them for 26.00USD per. Incredible is it not? These shirts get an entire second life. Also their second life in Japan might just be worth more than their first in America. And for those of you who might ask as to the validity of this statement. Just check out stores like WEGO in Japan and look at the brand names of the shirts. Faded Glory? Yeah, definitely American. Target brand? I think that one must be extremely old, because I don't recall that they even make Target brand clothing anymore.
And what's more? They are mostly, if not all, men's. Or well boy's at least, since Japanese ladies can be very slim and can easily fit into the boys clothing section of stores. They all have the buttons on the wrong sides and everything.

If flannel isn't your thing and you are more of a skirts and blouses kind of gal, then the more popular fall accessory to have is the tattoo tights. Appear like you have tattoos without any real commitment. Trust me this first time I saw these I about fell over. Well, because first of all I saw them on a Japanese lady and second of all I thought they actually were tattoos. And if you know anything about tattoos in Japan, then you would know that showing them off all over your legs like that is pretty taboo. Man was I wrong. I simply had to exit the coffee shop I was inhabiting and walk across the street to see the tattoo tights displayed in all their illuminated glory.
Personally, I am not a fan of this fashion. I find it a bit geared toward the younger-and-perhaps-grew-up-with-too-much-sugar generation. I feel like it kind of resembles a Alice in Wonderland meets Kyary Pamyu Pamyu in style. Because like all things, when something first works well in a simple fashion, it soon goes overboard with graphics and colors.

Your other nouveau fashion accessory, that I was told is a borrowed act from Korea, are the hats with ears. OK, I know you are thinking that either I am too into the animal-human culture in Japan or that Japan itself is too into it. Or possibly you might want to tell me that this is nothing new. But it is! It is not those beanies or toboggans with ears flapping around on the sides. This is like a bowler with ears on it. I have even seen people wearing it. You know like outside. In public.

Lastly I have the say boots. Boots seem to be everywhere this fall. I don't know if they are making a special push for it this year or what, but the fashion-true high heel has been moved to the backs of the stores with the boots up front and in the windows. Who knows if their marketing skill will actually work in the next few weeks when it really begins to cool down.

Tat Tat Tat it up

Here is something that pertains exactly not at all to myself, and yet still manages to infuriate me.
Tattoos.

I am not going to say I am for or against them because personally I don't really care. But what I can't stand is the blatant racism towards people that have them. Recently in Japan, a man employed by the city of Osaka showed his tattoo to a child. What the tattoo was, they never said, but what entailed...After hearing of this story, the Osaka mayor demanded to know who on his force, employed by the government anywhere, in any position in Osaka, who had body ink. Now this already infringes upon the rights of people. And to take it a step further the Osaka city mayor, Toru Hashimoto, just said they may as well quit now. It is currently implied that he is looking fire anyone with a tattoo, but of course there is a certain legal battle. How will he get his workers to survey as to whether they have tattoos or not? He is holding promotion above their heads. He states that anyone who fails to answer the survey will be withheld from all promotion possibilities.
Toru Hashimoto is probably the most active politician in Japan and does do some decent things for Osaka, and then apparently some radical things: tattoos, ending relations with the red cross which provides much of the disaster relief to many victims, such as for Fukushima last March. And additionally he is an advocate of dismantling the Tokyo government. He feels it holds too much power and that to dismantle it and start afresh would be in its best interest as it can't but last another 3-5 year (quote).

So what is next?
They have now put forth a motion where any teachers in the employment of Osaka government will have to answer if they have tattoos or not. Remember this does not affect me or my job. I am tattoo free. But the blatant criminalization for freedom of expression is so overwhelming that one cannot help but to be infuriated with the closed-mindedness of the Osaka government. The movement for teacher is luckily facing a lot of opposition from the board for good reason and is in an unpassing stalemate currently.

Tattoos have long been a source of stereotypes and even fear in Japan, as they have long been related to the yakuza, the gang population in Japan. I can't tell you much about gang related tattoos other than that apparently they exist. The situation is probably highly similar to tattoos in the American gang scenarios. Regardless, the yakuza inspire fear in much of the Japan population. And seeing tattoos only increases the knowledge of the person, the affiliation and that fear. And the best way to see tattoos? Get naked. No really. As people began to take notice of these tattoos at public bath houses and onsens, their clientele began to express their worries and take their patronage elsewhere. Action was taken, a rarity for Japan. The public naked places put a ban on anyone entering with tattoos. This means regular Joe with a MOM tattoo can't go either. Why? Because they had to make it fair. They cannot just ban the yakuza that is illegal and infringing upon rights, so they had to make it everybody to be politically correct. At least they got that bit right.

The above is an example of some Japanese yakuza body art. There isn't necessarily one image they stick to but more over a style of images.

AN UPDATE!
So 6 people who admitted that they had tattoos on the survey were recently fired from their positions.