Today we're here in Osaka, Japan to dive head first into the world of underground street racing. Specifically, Kanjo racers. F***ing police!
But Japan's legal system is no joke. Some critics have referred to their system as hostage justice, with Japan's conviction rate exceeding over 90%. 99%. So what makes these drivers risk so much, and what the hell's a Kanjizoku?
We're going to uncover exactly what goes into building these cars, the strategy the police forces use to catch their targets, and by the end, if I play my cards right. all are in a seat to ride on the legendary Kanjo Loop myself. Today we're here in Osaka and we're hunting Kanjo civics.
Welcome to Donut. I've known about Osaka's Kanjo racers for some time, but to us in the west, they've always been shrouded in mystery. When I was a young boy, there was only one time with the experience in Kanjo, the bozo. Super crazy, incredible.
Teams of the craziest Honda builds tearing through the streets of Osaka. Because two-lane freeway driving in a five-line Civic. Two lanes? Two lanes, but five Civics. Listen, these guys, they don't talk openly, they don't name names, and they definitely don't share secrets with just anyone.
Is there anything like that here in Tokyo? Only Osaka, yeah. Yeah, only Osaka. So if we want to see the real Kanjo scene, we'll have to dig deep.
Osaka is defined by its warm and generous people who welcome you with big open arms. Very good, very good, very good. Like meeting an old friend. I love Osaka.
But we weren't just here to sightsee. Car scene is different Tokyo with Osaka area. It's called like Los Angeles and New York City.
100% different. Art fixer Lucas of Team Free Spirit put together a meet for us. Osaka, they showed up. Whoa!
Yo! Hey, what's up? This is f***ing insane! There's Civics everywhere, there's a 400R down there!
Oh yeah. My car! What?
Yeah! Yeah! Hardcore!
Hardcore! Hardcore! Hardcore! There's Lamborghinis down there, I saw a GT3. I had no f***ing idea.
We were like, oh, there'll be like five cars maybe. We hoped to make a connection with the locals that would get us closer to the Kanjizoku. Hey, we're gonna run the loop later.
Will we see you out there? Good, good. No?
No? He said no. Now, that didn't exactly work out how I planned.
But, we did notice there was a lot of civics. If we wanted to find our racers, it might be a good idea to find a shop that specializes in Hondas. Alright, so now we're here at Zero Fighter, which is probably one of the biggest Honda tuning shops in Japan. They have their own paint booth and they track prep a lot of customer cars. And rumor has it, some of these guys might know some people who drive the Kanjoulu.
I'm Daisuke Hayashi, Kaisa Zero Fighter. Thank you for having us. We brought you a present for you and the team. Hi, thank you, thank you very much. Kentucky, KFC present for you.
For you. Yeah? I love KFC.
Yeah! Zero Fighter is a shop built upon decades of experience on the Kanjo and the circuit. While they don't race the Kanjo themselves anymore, they still build cars for locals, no questions asked. My car, my car, Impala. Chevy, I like Chevy.
There are Hondas everywhere here. It didn't take long for us to find what we were looking for. were looking for.
Whoa. We can't say if these cars are built for the track, street, or both, but to understand why they're built like this, it's important to know the origins of the Kanjizoku first. The Kanjo Racers, or Kanjizoku, emerged in Osaka during the 1980s. Japan's automotive golden era was just starting.
It gave birth to the fastest Hondas at the time, The developments made for circuit racing found their way to the streets, where drivers honed and tested their cars. The street scene was booming. When do you think Kanjo racing actually started?
We spoke to a retired Kanjozoku who wished to remain anonymous. There are teams, teams of the Kanjou clan. By the early 90s, Kanjouzoku were in full force.
There were times when you couldn't get on the car without a sticker. You'd get the keys out and the car would pop open. There were a lot of battles. Battles, battles.
It was a battle, but it was faster than a big car. Why do you like the Civic? It's very smooth and it's fun to drive.
I love the engine of the Honda. The Civic wasn't as fast as its more powerful Japanese counterparts like the Nissan Skyline or Toyota Supra. But it was lightweight, high-revving, and perfect for weaving through highway traffic while evading the police. I was in 6th grade.
At that time, there were almost no Skylines. So, there were a lot of cars on the roads. So, I thought that it would be easier to overtake in the Civic.
The Kanjouzoku and their Civics soon became the dominating force on the Osaka highways. The three most popular Civic chassis that Kanjou racers are known for using are the EF, EG, and EK. This is a perfect example of what a Kansai Zoku Civic might be.
It's got no interior, the driver's seat in a precarious position, and this racing net which may or may not block the driver's face. Now a lot of these cars run the B-series engine varying from the B16 to the B18. The good thing about these engines is you can swap out parts.
It's kind of like one big Lego. A lot of these cars run different wheels from SSR Type Cs to Enkei RPF1s and even TE37s. It really doesn't matter, they all look really good. But my favorite is the SSR Type C. But what really makes a Conjo Civic?
The exhaust! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Cool!
Do you have a lot of customers who run the Kanjo? Yeah, yeah, the same. There are both of us, and there are people who are in the same group. The Kanjo circuit has been around for almost 20 years.
We've been playing around with it for a while. And just like we expected, lips were sealed, bounded by a code of honor, like a fight club. Yeah.
but for civics. Unfortunately for us, that means we still don't have a ride on the conjo. I've heard a lot of people telling me I need to try out this carbonated milk called cow piss soda.
I'm gonna give it a shot. Good. But I'm not just thirsty for carbonated cow milk.
I'm thirsty for Hondas. So we came to Aslan to talk to the shop owner and see what he knows about Kanjo street racers in the area. I'm Tani Oshitaka, the CEO of Aslan.
Please take me. I'm the dealer for the Honda. There's a reason why these Civics have so much in common with a car you would see at a racetrack.
From 1981 to 1999, Honda hosted the Civic One-Make Race. The style and racing pedigree has been passed down for decades and is still an inspiration for many Honda drivers in Osaka. While the series was disbanded, shops like Zero Fighter and Aslan still run their own Civic One-Make challenges. for enthusiasts to enter, fostering the future of grassroots motorsport. This is a record holder car.
But it's still a bit old. It took about 10 years to get to this shape. Alright, so this car holds the front-wheel drive record at Tsukuba.
Pretty cool. I'm gonna go ride on the loop. Do you have any words of advice for me?
I think you should ask someone else. I'm not familiar with Kanjouzoku. When I talk about them, it sounds like a lie.
Because I'm not a Kanjouzoku. For example, Temple Racing, and Get Wild, they're all Kanjouzoku stickers. I have friends like that. So I can talk about things like, something like this happened.
It's beginning to dawn on me how difficult finding these drives is. drivers really is. But it makes sense because they're trying to stay ahead of an ever-evolving police force that's hell-bent on making change. Orange.
I like the green one. At that time, there were a lot of police officers. So, the police were not in the hands of the police.
But now, there are fewer police officers. And the police system is the latest. The police system. Over the years, authorities have intensified crackdowns, installing AI-driven surveillance cameras, undercover officers, and mobile speed traps to stamp out the illegal races.
So I can't run away. In the past, we would look for the number plate on the camera. The investigation department...
I turn off the power until the police disperse. I don't go home. If I turn off the power, the GPS will come flying at me.
So I turn off the power. With the rollout of new technology, including AI facial recognition software and GPS tracking, sometimes the police don't even need to chase you. They'll just quietly build a case digitally and then show up at your door in the middle of the night. Open the door, you bastard!
They can track your device's GPS from a street race to your house and use AI to match your biometrics, like your ears, from camera footage to your social media photos. Critics in Japan have said, in today's society, where the advanced digital technology and the internet are widely used, extracting the individual's unique information from images of the whole body and face makes it possible to collect and record behavioral history without consent. But I'll let you decide if the safety benefits outweigh the loss of privacy.
Still, the severity has made Kanjo racers extremely hard to find. Some Kanjo racing teams have abandoned the loop altogether, but we were fortunate enough to meet a group of drivers. who've chosen a different home turf.
Take care of me. Let's have fun. The Conjo races have evolved into running the local togue roads as well. My balls are rattling! Alright, so tonight we're not on the loop.
We're actually going to the mountains to go see what some of these civics can do in their natural environment. Mountain racing is dangerous, but these guys wait to go out after 2 a.m. when the roads are mostly empty of the public. It's honestly very interesting to see the disposition of outlaw street racers who are trying to be courteous of others. So It wakes you up!
The cold mountain air and the buzzing from the swarm of civics was nothing short of intoxicating. On our way down the mountain, we ran into some sort of law enforcement. The group took off and I was split from the rest of the Donut team.
So, yeah, I think we were evading some sort of enforcement and now we're car wash parking lot. Yeah, we're off the main road for sure. I thought I saw him in there.
I'm using Google Translate to the best of my ability. Yeah, I'm just going to wait for the other guys and see where we go. Now I want to be clear. We're not condoning anything you see here today.
We are simply journalists with an intention to film, understand, and archive a time and scene as we find it. I think it's important that stuff like this is documented. From the moment we landed in Osaka, we had one goal, to ride and document the Kanjo Loop with a team.
And when we least expected it, our fixers Lucas and John received a call from someone who won't be named. A man in the shadow realm. And secured me a spot on a conjo run. So we're here on the side of the road with a couple guys. We're outside a pachinko shop.
We just got the go-ahead. I'll see you on the side. The other side brother. Alright.
Oof. A little both sides. Gotcha.
Hahaha. Oh! Alright, identity protected.
Alright, so I'm here with my buddy Jason Voorhees. We're entering the Conjo Loop now. Whoa! Warming up the tires.
My buddy Alex was filming in the Civic behind me. Conjo. Conjo.
Conjo. That's where we're going. Conjo. Oh Camera camera Oh my god. This is nothing.
Something like the C1 loop! This is an experience of a lifetime. I gotta say, while I'm sitting here riding shotgun on the loop, I can't help but think if this is actually that different from reckless drivers that stream back home.
Re-romanticize the illegal car culture of Japan. While there is a stricter code of conduct and it feels more sanctioned, You can't ignore that people do get hurt doing this. Now the loop takes about five minutes to go around, which means these guys can stay on here all night. And really, they only have to slow down for a few cameras here and there.
Right now they're using this Prius. as a blocking car and there's another one at the back of our convoy that's also a blocking car and they're acting as blockers for this little convoy of ours so if we do run into a police presence they're using them to hold off the police so that we can get away. It's one of the many tactics that the Conjo guys use so they can do this all night long.
Oh, that was so nuts. The Kanjo Zoku has survived police crackdowns, new laws, and the changing streets of Osaka. But now, with AI surveillance and GPS tracking, the game is evolving again.
So the question remains, does the Kanjo spirit find a way to stay ahead, or will they slowly fade out? Only one thing's for sure. Somewhere out there, in your neighborhood, right now, there's a Honda Civic... bouncing off the rev limiter with a laptop in the passenger seat and a heart full of dreams. A huge thanks to our friends Lucas, Robert, and John for making this whole thing possible.
We'll put their links down below in the bio, check them out. Thank you guys so much for watching and thank you Japan. We'll see you next time.