Yankii
Yankii is Japanese slang for young people with a delinquent streak, and for the fashion and way of life that go with them. The word comes from the English Yankee. Spread by word of mouth, it is used loosely, for anything from a rebellious teenager to a gang member, and its look has changed with every generation.
Definition
In our reading, yankii describes an attitude made visible: in the words of the Japanese source, a wish to look tough and intimidating and to be respected by one's friends. The style changed from decade to decade while the mentality stayed much the same. Boys of the classic period wore pompadour hair, school uniforms altered to non-standard lengths, short or long jackets, very wide trousers, flattened school bags and loud open-collared shirts with sandals; girls favoured long skirts, and the long tight skirt became a mark of the style.
Origin
Yankee, the American slang for a northerner, has been used in Japanese since the Meiji and Taishō periods. In the 1970s, delinquent youth in Tokyo and the Kantō region were called tsuppari, and the tsuppari style, linked with the motorcycle gangs, produced the embroidered tokkofuku uniform. In Kansai, yankii was already in use for delinquents by 1975; the comic singer Kamon Tatsuo's 1983 song about a yankii older brother spread the word nationwide. From the mid-1980s to the early 1990s yankii named delinquent youth in general, and the manga Be-Bop High School, serialised from 1983, gave the era its best-known picture. The English-language usage, yankī, dates the term from the late 1970s.
Key facts
| From | English Yankee |
|---|---|
| Tsuppari | The 1970s Kantō term and style |
| Spread nationally | 1983, through a Kansai comic song |
| Classic image | Be-Bop High School, from 1983 |
| Clothing | Altered school uniforms, wide trousers, embroidered long coats |
How to read the clothes
- Long coats. Embroidered long coats with standing collars, often with dragons, phoenixes or slogans.
- Trousers. Very wide, tapered trousers, called bontan or dokan.
- Embroidery. In our handling, hand-guided machine embroidery, the same craft as on sukajan, is the quality signal.
- Graduation sets. Matching coat and trouser sets made for the end of school are a recognisable type.
Where it appears in the collection
Examples include a white long coat and bontan set with dragon embroidery and a black long coat and bontan set with Buddha and rose embroidery. Our guide to bōsōzoku and yankii style goes further.
Related entries
- Wagara: the Japanese patterns the embroidery draws on
- Amekaji: the American-casual style that runs alongside
Sources
- Yankii (delinquent youth), Japanese-language encyclopaedia entry (our translation), for the meaning, etymology, the changing styles, tsuppari, the Kansai usage and the 1983 song, the classic clothing and Be-Bop High School. ja.wikipedia.org
- Yankee, encyclopaedia entry, for the Japanese usage from the late 1970s. wikipedia.org
Last reviewed 15 November 2026. The Japonista Curation and Concierge Team, Tokyo, Japan.