Shibuya Gyaru Purge “Successful”
- Categories: Japan, News
- Date: Aug 28, 2012 06:10 JST
- Tags: Crime, Fashion, Gyaru, Old People, Shibuya, Shopping, Tokyo, Video Gallery
Shibuya has been trumpeting its success in driving out adherents of the various youth subcultures it largely spawned, with herds of gyaru, ganguro, yamanba and other undesirables now a rarity on its fair streets.
Central Shibuya’s retail promotion association had become concerned at Shibuya’s reputation as a “scary town” (an accurate characterisation by central Tokyo standards, though a massive exaggeration by those of practically anywhere else), and resolved to do something about it by driving out the young people.
From 2003 onwards, they instituted street patrols of major shopping areas near Shibuya station, with the intent of driving out the massed groups of gyaru and other fashion tribes who once milled about in these areas.
According to the brave souls who undertook the gruelling task of telling young girls to get lost if they weren’t there to shop, after some ten years of this their numbers have dwindled from dozens of gyaruzu occupying the sides of the main thoroughfares, engaged in such anti-social practices as sitting, dancing and talking, to less than 10 at typical times.
Whether their efforts had any legal force is not clear, although it is hard to imagine Japanese disobeying instructions from anyone wearing an armband and a uniform.
Some have lamented the measures as “potentially causing the decline of a vibrant source of street culture,” although as they do not own any Shibuya department stores their opinions carry no weight.
Similar efforts to reduce the numbers of central Tokyo’s highly visible and highly pungent homeless population seem to have enjoyed more limited success, and unfortunately it will likely take more than a few old men in uniforms to do anything about Shibuya’s architecture.
The valiant efforts of the patrol in action, their main and only recourse to correcting the evils of youth, smokers, and of course people leaning on railings or stood with a suitcase at their feet appearing to be bad language and shouting:
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Gyarus in the first pic are not scary, just hideous (to me).
But why pick on them? They're doing nothing wrong, just having fun. Something old geezers probably can't have anymore (if they ever had).
The "old geezers" simply can't accept that new generation is different.
I have seen it in Europe too. Fortunately, the old geezers here are just that: old geezers.
In Japan - and I gather other countries with age-based social hierarchies (India pops up as an example) - the old farts unfortunately bear most of the power by the virtue of being old.
And here in canada we throw them in retirement homes, no respect for the elders.
Hey, when the elders respect the young, then we will respect them. Unfortunately, that does not exist in America and Canada at this point.
Man, fuck that. Elders here in Canada do not give two shits about anybody else, they can go die in their retirement homes and do the world a favor for all I care. They have no respect for anybody and think they actually have predefined authority. You know what I call that? Hypocritical, conceited cunts.
keep in mind you guys are going to be elders someday, hopefully you don't act the same way as the current elderly do.
well, they will rot away in the same retirement homes one day.
i wish western society still had commonsense
Beauty is in the eyes of dead presidents and past leaders...if you get what I mean.
Beauty is in the eyes of dead presidents and past leaders...if you get what I mean.
geezers ? you mean, like the absurd some intolerant ero-writer that would be ruling the place ?
(-some. hey, what's with the edit feature ?)
I Remember reading gyaru fashion perpose was to repel guys from hit on them.
Some shops in my country have a sign outside, "No loitering" which is what they were doing.
In Australia, people don't like that and if they do cause some disturbance for your business, only police can tell them to move.
I think nothing wrong with sitting down, loitering. Doesn't really ruin the business. But if too many, then I think they are annoying as they take up the whole footpath and act like idiots. And I don't mind when I see the girl squat and spread her legs :D Always a good site :)
So gyarus are like skaters in the US, to a lesser degree.
don't we have our own "gyarus" like snooki and all those guidos that use radiation tanning
That only happens in New Jersey and no one goes to New Jersey. On the people in New Jersey hang out in New Jersey.
Don't lump all of NJ with that guido trash.
I almost went berserk on a college professor in Alaska for that.
No skater are smelly guys that I could care less about. Chicks with way to much orange tan is ok by me. Old people need to die off or maybe they can just go somewhere and die off. Either way it be ok by me.
There goes your freedom of expression and free thought
as far as i know the japanese don't have freedom of expression or free thought. it's do as your told or else.
Yup. You do as you're told, or else you get bullied for being different.
I remember seeing that in their constitution. Was it article 3 or 4? I can't remember. Give me a refresher.
As far as we know Gyaru don't think.
or maybe, it was a trend that slowly died out and people grew up.
we? who "we"? your imaginary believe?
It's Japan, there never was any.
Japan didn't have any of that to begin with. The nail that sticks up must be hammered down.
Democracy is when a man with common sense and two stupid men meet and the two latter owerrule the first man by joining together.
Japan is not know for it. Conform is the norm.
Wonder not have to hand the Ishihara this story.
Stupid cops abusing authority, even worse old men authoritarian to talk to young people.
The cleanup started with tattooed, people who dresses differently, tomorrow otakus enters the list!
otakus have been on the list since the 80s
Not always a bad thing.
*sigh* voted down.
I didn't think it would need to be explained, thankfully anon 9:23 covered it.
ALWAYS... a bad thing.
When a person abuses 'freedom of expression' to make hate speeches and promote violence against certain ethnic groups, well, that person needs to have his freedom withdrawn and himself hammered down.
@09:23
I have to disagree. Regulations against the so called "hate speech" can lead to prosecuting people who make perfectly objective and logical statements.
For example, you can't publicly say that women score lower on IQ tests on average (which is true) or that black people are typically more athletic than other races (also true) without being caused a significant amount of grief by pretend-emancipation supporter supremacists and the occasional misguided white knight.
Suppressing information because it offends certain people is a disaster waiting to happen.
So yes, hate speech is fine. That doesn't mean that you are free of the consequences however. You can scream "Fire" in a theatre, and you won't be prosecuted for your words. However, you will be prosecuted for putting a lot of people into danger.
NOT... always a bad thing.
That's such bullshit, though.
You'd have to functionally braindead to take such ideologies seriously. It's not like they're seriously seductive for most of us. Let the stupid ones out themselves.
The world should be a free marketplace of ideas... and that includes bad ones. Censorship just makes hate groups feel victimized... and that's rarely a winning combination.
The security guard in the first video sounds like Beat Takashi.
Also watching these reminded me that Sega has not released another Jet Grind Radio title in nearly 10 fucking years.
Well they're releasing a remastered version of Jet Set Radio for download on September 18, if that counts.
Not really, but the remake does look good. Hopefully they'll do JSRF next, as I'd love to play it in 16x9, without the occasional slowdown. That damned lag dragon is unbelievably frustrating.
Nice, but make a new one!
I was in Shibuya in April and I do agree that the efforts to get to purge the gyaru subculture was indeed effective...it was as if I was in a different Tokyo from the one I had visited in my previous trip. They also opened a brand new department store called Hikari-e in order to rebrand the place as a family-friendly shopping attraction. It is quite sad.
Two years ago when I studied in Tokyo, Shibuya was my go-to place! I used to hang out there every night for hours and met some really cool people. It was the perfect place to watch the World Cup too. Shibuya was still Shibuya back then. My Japanese friend used to refuse invitations to Shibuya at night because she was so scared of the "shady" people who hang out there, and I had to settle for Shinjuku instead if I wanted to see her.
I was just in Tokyo this past June and I have to agree that Shibuya has lost some of its charm. Hikari-e is pretty lame compared to the people who used to hang out under 109 or even by Marui.
That's a real pity. For my short trip... two or three years ago, I think people watching in Shibuya was one of the highlights.
Now, you can watch old guys blowing whistles at people. :3
So where people there to buy or was it full of old men looking for some young ass.
So in your opinion is it better or worse without the Gyaru?
Worse, in the sense that it's a lot less interesting there now. The gyaru, in my experience were not troublemakers, they just wanted to stand out, mainly by looking and dressing differently...what's so bad about non-conformity? (Rhetorical question).
>>what's so bad about non-conformity?
..this is JAPAN we're talking about, right?
Yes, indeed. I was just injecting my opinion as a gaijin. Japan is not the place to be if you stand out...however, they certainly took their time in deciding to stamp out what they deemed to be an eyesore...seems the hesitancy of authorities to act is also a trademark of Japan.
Still, like any place in the world, all cultures have their pros and cons...
Japan is a conformist society.
They just try to not be one, but their culture is generally that, follow the rules and stuff.
What about on weekends? Sub-culture youths still flock around Shibuya on sundays right?
Is it wrong that I gave you a +1 just for that avatar...
Oh my childhood interferes yet again!!