>called 'Bosuzoku,' I think. Also has links to 'yankee'
>culture via extreme tobacco abuse, preference for driving very
>loud means of transportation late at night through otherwise
>quiet neighborhoods, dyeing one's hair orange, and taking a
>general punk ass attitude toward life. On seeing the movie, I
>looked at the biker gangs as a logical extension of bosuzoku
>culture.

My brother has had a run in with them. Luckily, they weren't on their bikes.

While not true Bosuzoku, gangs gained a new kind of popularity a while back by way of a novel about them set in Ikebukuro West Gate Park. By way of the TV adaption, it was kind of trendy to be in a color gang like in the show.

>As far as the 80s in Japan, I didn't get there until 1993 but
>from what I know of the 1980s it was kind of like here....
>there was a nice conservative veneer with a lot of ugly things
>going on underneath. There's always a crazy right wing
>contingent that parades around blaring loudpeakers about
>returning power to the Emperor, and the 1980s saw a
>comparative lot of terrorist activity from the Japanese Red
>Army organization (a childhood friend's dad was killed when
>they blew up a jet about 1983 or 1984).

The ultra right wing guys are still there. Kick out foreigners, fuck Korea and all...

So do you think that the group that Ryu and Kei belong to are meant to be a representation of the JRA? I thought it was interesting that it was revealed that their inside man turned out to be a double dealing oppourtunist in the government.