Bōsōzoku

[2] Bōsōzoku style traditionally involves boilersuits similar to those of manual laborers or leather military jackets with baggy pants, and tall boots.

Typical accessories to this uniform are hachimaki, surgical masks, and patches displaying the Rising Sun Flag.

Bōsōzoku members are known for taking Japanese road bikes and adding modifications such as over-sized fairings, lifted handle bars shifted inwards, large seat backs, extravagant paint jobs, and modified mufflers.

[4] Many veterans faced difficulty readjusting to society after the war, and some turned to custom car making and gang-like activities on city streets to gain an adrenaline fix.

[7] In 2004, the Japanese government passed a revised road traffic law which gave the police more power to arrest bikers riding recklessly in groups.

Aichi prefecture was reported to have the highest number of riders, followed by Tokyo, Osaka, Ibaraki and Fukuoka.

This includes a pompadour style haircut, tokkō-fuku uniforms, which were often modified and embroidered jumpsuits, inspired by those worn by manual laborers during the WWII era, baggy pants and military boots.

These bōsōzoku groups sometimes ride without motorcycle helmets (which in Japan is illegal), also engage in dangerous or reckless driving, such as weaving in traffic, and running red lights.

Japanese police call them Maru-Sō (police code マル走 or 丸走) and occasionally dispatch police vehicles to trail the groups of bikes for the reason of preventing possible incidents, which may include: riding very slowly through suburbs at speeds of 10–15 km/h (6.2–9.3 mph), creating a loud disturbance while waving imperial Japanese flags, and starting fights that may include weapons (such as wooden swords, metal pipes, baseball bats, and Molotov cocktails).

Examples of modifications that are taken from these styles are raised handle bars like those on a chopper or over-sized fairings like those found on café racers (though bōsōzoku usually fit them much higher on the bike than their original position, and angled upwards at the front).

[12] A typical customized bōsōzoku bike starts off by taking an average 250-400cc Japanese road bike, adding a shugo exhaust system (multiple tube header), squeezing the handlebars inwards (known as shibori, from the verb shiboru, "to squeeze"), and adding a three- or four-trumpet horn - sanren or yonren, respectively.

[12] Loud paint schemes on the fenders or the gas tanks with motifs such as flames or kamikaze-style "rising sun" designs are also quite common.

[14][15] In general, the Japanese government sees bōsōzoku as highly organized groups, affiliated under several national federations.