Before the Gangs There Were the Teams - The Teamer's of Japan

As we showed previously in a number of posts, even Japan has a history of notorious gang & youth culture.

From Bōsōzoku to Yankee, Japan isn't only about polite people and manners after all. One of these delinquent groups, the Color Gangs, were heavily inspired by American gang culture [check previous post for more info]. Seen sporting their gang's colors, Color Gangs had clear American hip hop influences, like the baggy jeans and their love for lowrider cars. However, even before the Color Gangs, there were menacing Japanese groups that took inspo from American culture; the Teamers.

Contrary to the hip hop-influenced Color Gangs, the Teamers of Japan were heavily inspired by American Casual style. From the mid 1980s to the mid 1990s, Teamers were seen everywhere. The name comes simply from the word "Team" with an -er at the end, due to the fact that they called themselves "teams" and not "gangs". The most common Teamer fashin was called the "Shibu-Kaji" [Shibuya Casual] style. Vanson leather jackets, Red Wing engineer boots, and Levi's 501s were some of their favorite items.

These Teamers mainly would gather near Shibuya Kōen Street, but the culture spread past the borders of Tokyo later on. Always up to no good, Teamers were known and feared due to their notoriety; assault, robbery, and violence were just some of the evils they took part of. They would often even get innocent people involved in their troubles, including "Air Max-Gari", who would beat you up and steal your Air Max 95's [separate post coming soon].

One of the biggest influences for Teamers is said to come from movies. There are said to be a handful of titles that especially started the movement, but "Warriors" [1979] and "Outsiders" [1983] are often said to be the two most impactful.

There were so many Teamers in Japan back then, that if you live in Japan someone you know had ought to be a former Teamer. In fact, there are a good number of Japanese celebrities who have come out as being former Teamers. You can even look up what team they belonged to.

Slip back in time and take a look at what Teamers used to be like in Japan.