Content area
Abstract
This thesis describes and analyzes the activity and symbolism of Japanese bosozoku (motorcycle gangs). Methodologically, this study belongs to the field of descriptive ethnography. I conducted field research in Kyoto for one year and three months and contacted seventy bosozoku members belonging to a gang confederation. Research techniques include participant observations, interviews, and questionnaires. Various censuses, official documents, mass media reports, and scholarly publications were also examined in order to analyze the social, cultural, and economic backgrounds of bosozoku activity.
The findings of this study show that bosozoku activity and symbolism can be comprehended as a form of social play that can be grouped into three genres: (1) speed and thrills (high-speed driving on the city roads), (2) fashion and style (symbolic construction through thematic paraphernalia), and (3) drama and dramatization (creation of a heroic narrative and self-presentation through media). These three genres correspond to three elements of a theatrical dramas--performance, props, and script. Each genre of bosozoku's "play" is characterized by a set of rules or control mechanisms, which operate as "playlike definitions of the situation" created by bosozoku members. The rules organize adolescent life and simultaneously curb the excessive risks of bosozoku play, although not with complete success.
The emergence and development of bosozoku play reflect the developing consumerism and the expansion of the mass media in contemporary Japan. Attenuated social control over adolescents in the midst of affluence leads to increased age segregation between adults and adolescents and facilitates the adolescents' experimentation with expressive styles. In most cases, however, this experimentation comes to an end with the onset of adulthood. Effective crime control and relatively open job market for youths encourage a "graduation" from this deviant career.
This thesis concludes that playlike deviance or "action" in general depends up a precarious balance between the control capabilities of playlike definitions of the situation and tendencies toward "corruption" or excess that is inherent in playlike activities.
