Police in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, have arrested seven 17-year-old youths over the attack on five other youngsters who had been riding bikes and listening to music last October.
The assailants violently punched and kicked the boys, and then stole two of the bicycles before fleeing the scene, TV Asahi reported. One of the victims sustained a fractured skull and was sent to the hospital in serious condition.
According to police, the seven assailants had claimed to be "hunting those without a license" after they explained to their victims that "playing music without a license in Kawaguchi was illegal," and that because the five boys had no license, they must be reprimanded.
The boys who had been attacked were able to provide police with a description of their attackers.
Police quoted some of the suspects as saying they had never intended to kill anyone.
© Japan Today
17 Comments
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SenseNotSoCommon
They can't have been angry at the noise.
sillygirl
What license? They didn't have because there is no such thing? Never heard of it. The were just cretins looking to do violence.
turbotsat
After a grueling 4-month investigation.
Disillusioned
The bullying punks picking on kids much younger than them. What's the bet they all have orange hair and were wearing gray tracksuis?
StormR
Typical punks bullying others, I hope they get a couple of years in an adult prison to reflect on how it feels to be bullied.
Absolute POS Punks.
jojo_in_japan
Sasuga Saitama!!
thepersoniamnow
Is the headline in regard to the seemingly slow police response or the crime? It seems common in Japan for the police to take months at times to make an arrest. Is this because they were minors or they weren't able to ID them till more recently?
100 CPM
"police to take months at times to make an arrest." and report it usually much later than the date of the crime.
nath
Cops here tend to do their research well and are sure that the person arrested is the perp.
They don't pull the gun and arrest the 1st likely person.
CGB Spender
Fair enough! No license, no music! ... Seriously though, bored teenage punks who make their own despotive laws just to bully others need to be put in jail for a while.
Zimiz
Seriously what is wrong with Saitama! Are there no school's? Or are those parents really that bad at telling their kids about what's right and wrong?
Serrano
The seven youths' parents must be pissed at having to have to go to the police station to pick them up, and possibly at the youths themselves.
Ken Doyle
Saitama again...
drakedogma
I wonder if those 7 kids had a license to "Beat the hell out of people much younger than them" license. Because if not, they can be sent to jail for the next 40 years
bjohnson23
hmm, "they weren't looking to kill anyone" yet they meant for now they were just content on beating up on geeks. Future recruits for the gangs, but what does one expect from kids who want to be ghetto boys just like what they listen to in the hiphop: yo yo ay boy!
ramses68
“hunting those without a license”
Do you need to have a license to hunt?
“playing music without a license in Kawaguchi was illegal,” But...
"violently punched and kicked" Assault, and "stole two of the bicycles" theft, aren't?
No wonder the birth rate continues to plummet in Japan. Between lack of social services, and the office work ethic that often keeps parents out of the home(fathers), and the shop till you drop ethic of those left behind(mothers). Then you get to look at the news and see what fine examples of Japanese youth you have running around. I wonder if these youth are the ones that grow up to be mental 20-50 yr olds that walk out, and go all stabby, on some poor innocent? Too bad Japan doesn't have squat for mental health services, or they might have already found a correlation, and have been able to answer this question.
Magnus Roe
It doesn't say anywhere in the article that the ones attacked were younger than the attackers. Both groups sound like a pain in the neck to me, the group of five were probably playing their rubbish music for the whole block to hear