Boys disturbing the area, need some advice

Hello everyone.

I have lived in Japan for almost 3 years now and been living in the same area/apartment and its generally a nice area. I like living here and have had no issues, married my Japanese girlfriend and speak the language fine.

Anyway...

In the past few months we have noticed gangs of youths gather in the park opposite our apartment building and although they don't hurt anyone or anything they leave a lot of litter on the street and do stupid things like for literally no reason will stand and talk in the road on their bikes so cars have to avoid them.

As you enter our apartment building you come into a lobby where there are nice decorations and some chairs along with the post boxes for each apartment. Somehow when its cold the gang of kids sneak in, probably trailing behind someone, and hang out there and smoke (which is prohibited there) and listen to stupid music on their phones. A poster was put up in our elevator recently with a photo of a cigarette burn on a chair with information stating it has been sent to the police. Despite this, they still seem to be there a lot. They have never physically attacked me and i doubt ever will or anyone else, but yesterday as I came out of the elevator and they were there, one of the boys suddenly shot up and looked at me and just said good evening in Japanese. It wasn't like he wanted to fight, but more just being cheeky and annoying. These guys are probably high school kids or slightly older and dont physically scare me, but I have to admit it is starting to get annoying. I am well aware as a foreigner or even if I were Japanese I have no right to just beat the hell out of them, and the last thing I want is any trouble. I could resort to just outright insults in English about how one of their girlfriends looks like a chihuahua having a seizure or just generally have some fun with it, but in all seriousness I don't see why I should have to put up with it.

What would you do?

Thank you

Contact your landlord and tell them what's happening. Also, go to your local police box or police station and tell them as well.

There's a vacant lot in our neighborhood which briefly got taken over by a group of wannabe thug teens to use as their outdoor smoking lounge. We mentioned it to the officer on duty when we stopped by the local police station, and they sent someone to disperse the crowd, and they never came back.

I'd report it to the management company/manager.

Hi,
I think the first thing to do there is to talk to them. Maybe try to ask them nicely to be quiet and that they should not be smoking here. Tell them that they are old people living here and that you've heard them talking about calling the police the next time it happens. Pretend to be on their side but warn them about what could happen. If they don't change and keep smoking and being noisy, you should call your property management and the police. Dialogue is always a good start.

I hope that this was helpful.

Thierry, from Easy Life Japan

What would I do? I generally do what the other poster said: Ask them to leave.

The trick is to be calm, polite and use keigo (like you would to any other stranger),
state your situation (ie. "This is private property. Smoking and noise annoys residents and therefore is prohibited),
and be specific about what you want them to do ("Leave. Talk quietly at park. Don't litter.").
And it has always worked for me, 100 %.

What you don't want to do is to randomly say, "Hey, this is annoying, period." because then the other party would be embarrassed, wouldn't know what to do, and just for that reason they'll try to embarrass you back. Be sure to state your reason and ask them to do something specific (such as to leave).

But nowadays I'm having second thoughts about what I've been doing, because even if they leave they'll just go elsewhere like the 17 year old kids that murdered the 13 year old after they were asked to leave. At least, many just wouldn't go home.

Actually, if you (or the board member you make the request to) talk to a koban person or your local police department, a (decent) police officer would come around and talk to those kids. It's really best to have someone have a good chat with them. Meanwhile, if they said hi to you, it would've been a good opportunity to "inform" them about alternative ways to spend their time.

Complain to building management. This isn't your problem to sort out.