Once a symbol of a burgeoning postwar counterculture, the bōsōzoku are fading. Gone are the days when gangs of bikers would zoom through neighborhoods with daredevil temerity.
According to the latest National Police Agency report, the number of recognized bōsōzoku members nationwide, which peaked in 1982 at 42,500, has fallen steadily over the last three decades and hit a record low 7,297 last year.
"The bōsōzoku are history," Kazuhiro Hazuki, 39, a former leader of Narashino Specter, once a highly influential biker clan based in Chiba Prefecture, says in a documentary that debuted April 12 in Tokyo.