In Japan, late at night you sometimes hear their motorcycles roaring obnoxiously down the street, often accompanied with weird loud music blairing away.  These guys are known as "bosozoku", which means motorcycle gangs.  They usually ride custom modified bikes, sometimes with ridiculously tall seats or oversized bugshields.  Their age range is normally 14-20 years old. This is a unique  subculture of Japan, which I've seen featured in a few movies as well.
 
僕の友人が日本に来て、暴走族のバイク音にまいっているようだ。
そもそも、暴走族ってなんで騒音を立てて走っているんだろうか？
これって日本特有のもので、海外で暴走族って聞いたことないなぁ。

The young gangs like to be loud, ignore traffic signals, and enjoy running away from police. They have learned over time that the police do not use their guns against them while chasing.  It is said that the police fear being accused of killing such a young person, so instead they just continue to chase them and yell out them over loud speakers.  To avoid being identified on police video and tracked down later, the gangs bend the license plate on their bikes where they are unable to be read.

It seems that some of the younger Japanese have a need to show their rebellion against society by doing these type of things. Maybe they just enjoy the risk of being caught by the police. Some of them eventually grow out of this phase.  For others though...maybe that's a topic for a different article.

よくテレビの「警視庁24時」なんか見てると、警察を挑発したりしているけど、アメリカなんかでこんなことしてたら、みんな即、銃で撃たれてたりするのかな(笑)　ルールを破ることや、社会への反感など様々な理由はあるとして、それが、どうして騒音を立ててバイクを走らせることになるんだろう？　グループで行動するっていうのがやっぱり日本人特有の文化なんだろうね。

今じゃ、「マイルドヤンキー」なんて言葉もあって、地元で家族や友人との絆を大切にして平穏な日々を過ごすのが目的の若者たちがいるようだが、この暴走族とはまた別の世界で生きていくんだろうね。日本の現代文化は移り変わりも激しいが、やはり奥深くて面白い。
 
Is there anything similar or comparable to this type of subculture in your own country?  Please feel free to leave comments below.