Since the 1980s and 1990s, street racing in Japan has been relatively mainstream. But because of government and police intervention, street racing as a whole has since died down. The illegal street racing that occurs in Japan today usually takes place on the Tōge mountain roads or enthusiasts reaching top speeds on Japan's Wangan Expressway. Despite this recent police enforcement, one little-known racing group still tears up the streets of Osaka to this day. And their racing is unlike any other.
They call themselves the Kanjizoku. The club is filled with mystery as very little is known about the Kanjizoku, but the impact that they've had on Japanese car culture is enormous. So who are the Kanjizoku and what makes them some of Japan's most infamous street racers?
Kanjizoku is a subcategory of Japanese street racers primarily racing on an Osaka highway called the Loop. The club was founded in the 1980s and in the early days of the Kanjizoku, rival clubs would battle on the Loop racing each other at high speeds. The culture of the Kanjizoku is mysterious as not many people know about this club, and the kanjizoku try to keep it this way.
Members of the club will remove their license plates and the vehicle's VIN number, as well as hide their cars in discrete locations to keep this animosity. And it's not uncommon for members to wear ski masks or put netting on their windows to hide their identity from police or other bystanders. The kanjizoku tradition all started on one Japanese expressway.
The Hashin Expressway No. 1, or more commonly referred to as the Loop. This is an ideal road for street racing in the battleground of the Kanjizoku. The Kanjiloop is 4.7 miles long, and it runs right in the heart of Osaka, where during the day, it is a regular route for drivers going back to work, but at night, it turns into a racecourse that attracts the attention of Osaka's Kanjizoku racers and police.
The loop has many exits racers can take to avoid police enforcement, which makes it a perfect place for illegal street racing. And it's been this way since the early days of racing in Japan. During the 1970s, street racing in Japan was making a name for itself, and the loop was used by enthusiasts for racing.
During this time, it was common to see early GTRs and Datsuns racing on the loop before expressways like the Wangan were built. The Kanjo loop is much more narrow than other Japanese expressways. Additionally, the expressway was windy, meaning that you needed a car with great handling to take these turns at higher speeds.
Naturally, the Honda Civic became the car of choice for the the Kanjizoku racers. They were a lot easier to get a hold of compared to the Porsche 911s and GTRs the one-gun racers were using, and unlike the millionaire street racers of the one-gun, the Kanjizoku were everyday people like you and me, racing cars that are common and easy to modify. Additionally, the Civic could easily blend in with Osaka street traffic. During the 1980s, the third-gen Civic was released. Street racers were attracted to the car because of its small size, good handling, and high revving engines.
Within a couple of years, the Honda Civic became the car of choice for the Kanjizoku. Street racing on the loop really took off during the mid to late 1980s. This is when clubs like No Good Racing and Top Gun Racing were founded. Many members today still run this banner, and these are becoming more and more common in the American car scene.
What really makes the Kanjizoku special is that they're not your typical street racers. Sure, the club involves modified vehicles reaching dangerous rates of speeds on public highways and taking turns in a way that you only see at tracks, but the Kanjizoku are playing a game between dangerous speeds and police. Similar to the Bosoroku biker clubs, the Kanjizoku made an effort to reject societal norms in Japan.
Their cars are a way of expressing themselves in a society that takes pride in its structure and uniformity. During the peak of the Kanjizoku scene, the racing was much more competitive. Members of the scene would race for respect and sometimes this would result in fist fights between racers. Unfortunately, police crackdowns greatly reduce the Kanjizoku scene, and members who are still active on the loop are racing for more personal reasons or they just want to keep the culture alive. Current Kanjizoku have faith in the next generation to continue the Kanjizoku tradition.
One member stated, As long as there are civics, there will be Kanjizoku. Even to this day, young kids still race to keep the tradition alive. Nowadays, the Kanjizoku avoid conflict in an effort to keep the spirit of the club alive.
However, as of late, these racers have developed one common enemy, this being the police. Part of the reason the Kanjizoku race is because it's illegal. It's a game, a highly dangerous one, but a game nonetheless.
Part of the fun is getting away with something highly illegal, which involves a certain level of animosity. The civics of the kanjozoku race run with no license plate, registration, or VINs, which is done all in effort to remain anonymous. Razors were often wear masks or put netting on their windows to hide their identity, and many members of the kanjo scene live on the outskirts of Osaka, meaning it's hard for them to drive their unregistered cars to the loop without the risk of being caught. Instead, many members will hide their cars in garages or shops near the expressway, making easier to access the loop.
Until recently, not many people knew who the Kanjizoku were. It wasn't until stories started floating around the internet that people took notice of the Kanjizoku. Despite the scene's rise in popularity, the culture is still underground.
Encounters with the Kanjizoku outside of the scene are brief and fairly uncommon. You might see a few civics racing around you before they quickly disappear into the night, which just adds to the scene's mystery. The scene today consists of older members as well as some newer younger Kanjizoku who are just trying to keep the spirit of the loop alive.
Kanjizoku will often pause racing to play with police and though harassing police is not nearly as common as it used to be in the gang, probably one of the funniest things I've ever seen. One single Japanese police interceptor is not equipped with the resources to successfully catch members of the Kanjizoku. However, as a result of government intervention and police crackdowns, illegal racing is not as common as it used to be. The penalties of getting caught simply do not justify the risk involved in racing.
Oftentimes, if you were caught, your car would be destroyed and your license could be revoked. Despite these consequences, the Kanjizoku are still fairly active and organized. This just means that Kanjizoku have to take a step further to hide their identity and remain anonymous. Many times before running the loop, they will send out a scout car to see what kind of law enforcement is present on the expressway.
If law enforcement is present, the Kanjizoku will send out decoy racers to distract the police before assembling elsewhere. usually at a nearby expressway. Some of them will also engage in hakamori, which is the art of sitting on your door, hanging halfway outside the car while you drive down the road.
I don't really get it, but they do that. As the kanjizoku cruise the streets of Osaka, they completely disregard each and every single traffic law. Stoplights don't mean anything, neither do lane markers or speed limits, but despite this chaos, there is a certain order to the kanjizoku.
As the club passes an intersection, a few cars will block the road off, preventing cross traffic from passing. As the racers make it to the entrance of the loop, they have to pass the toll barriers. And it's not like these guys are actually gonna lawfully enter the loop, so instead of paying the toll, one normal legal car will pay and keep the barrier open until the kanjizoku pass onto the expressway. Once on the expressway, the racing will begin.
Unlike the one gun racers, top speed is not what these guys are chasing. The true racing occurs on the windy sections of the loop. The kanjizoku are much more interested in testing the handling limits of their car as opposed to top speed.
A crash on these turns could be incredibly dangerous if not deadly. This is one reason why many members have moved to racing on tracks as opposed to the Osaka expressway. A lot of older members refuse to consider these track goers as kanjizoku, but in a way these enthusiasts are just going back to their roots.
During the late 1980s and 1990s, the Civic was an incredibly popular Japanese Group A racing vehicle. The loop runners would use the same mods in their car, starting from styling, engine setup, and tuning. The engine mods and tuning are usually not that heavy, and in most scenarios it is a moderately tuned, naturally aspirated B-Series or K-Series VTEC engine.
The interiors are generally stripped bare, and things like the engine bay presentation do not mean much to these guys, as long as their car is perfectly functional. Even if they're not illegally racing in Osaka, the Kanjizoku civics that are racing on tracks definitely share the same heritage. These days, Kanjizoku is still alive, and there is faith in the community that this tradition will continue into younger generations of enthusiasts.
However, with the advancement in automotive technology, new forms of street racing have been taking place in Japan. It is much more common for younger enthusiasts to be involved in Rulettozoku, meaning roulette tribe. These racers take aspects of Midnight Club and Kanjizoku, modifying their cars to push crazy amounts of power, so they can then race other members, often for large amounts of money.
This is a much newer scene, but the heritage of Japanese street racing still lives on. I'm unsure what's going to happen to the Kanjizoku, but I see faith in their future, especially with the release of the new Honda Civic Type R, and the growing popularity of Kanjizoku in the United States.