Kamikaze Biker: Parody and Anomy in Affluent Japan

By Ikuya Sato

Book Overview

In this firsthand account of high-risk car and motorcycle racing in Japan, Ikuya Sato shows how affluence and consumerism have spawned various experimental and deviant life-styles among youth. Kamikaze Biker offers an intriguing look at a form of delinquency in a country traditionally thought to be devoid of social problems.

"Ikuya Sato's Kamikaze Biker is an exceptionally fine ethnographic analysis of a recurrent form of Japanese collective youth deviance. . . . Sato has contributed a work of value to a wide range of scholarly audiences."--Jack Katz, Contemporary Sociology

"A must for anyone interested in Japan, juvenile delinquency and/or youth behavior in general, or the impact of affluence on society."--Choice

"The volume provides a sophisticated . . . discussion of changes happening in Japanese society in the early 1980s. As such, it serves as a window on the 1990s and beyond."--Ross Mouer, Asian Studies Review

"Kamikaze Biker is a superlative study, one that might help liberate American social science from the simplistic notion that behavior not directly contributing to economic productivity should be summarily dismissed as 'dangerous' and 'deviant.' "--Los Angeles Times Book Review

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226735281
• ISBN13: 9780226735283
• Release Date: June 1998
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 296 Pages
• Weight: 0.94 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

boso culture

Sato's Kamikaze Biker is the definitive work on the bosozoku subculture. Sato situates the boso between extremes of delinquency and mere youth rebellion, taking them far less gravely than Japan's police and news media, recognizing their performance for the elaborate public spectacle it is. The bosozoku play with the (almost clichéd) Japanese fears of deviance, disorder, and rebellious youth, and wear their evilness on their sleeves. They adorn themselves with the symbols of the yakuza, kamikaze, uyoku, and mafia, becoming archetypical outcasts. Sato's work is valuable for getting the bosozoku's image for what it is- show- and not getting caught in the trap of assuming the bosozoku's actions match their image. Sato's exhaustive study of Kyoto bosozoku gangs at their peak in the early '80s should put to rest continuing demonization of the bosozoku by Japan's police and news media. Bosozoku were never a serious threat to society, and have decreased in number since the early '80s. If it dresses like a kamikaze, barks like a mobster, and rides bikes like a Hells Angel, it must be terrible, right? Kamikaze Biker gets at the reality beyond the boso mystique. For more see jingai.com

An analysis of the Boso-Zoku gang sociology in Japan

In a search for more information on the Boso-Zoku (Speed Tribe) culture within Japan, I came accross this book. Instead of an entertaining volume, I found it to be more of a scientific study into the behaviors and sociology of the Boso and Yankee sub-cultures. While extremely informative, it is not for casual reading. I have rated it a seven based upon what it is, and educational volume.