ヤンキー (yankī)

What it means

1. 1.

   A delinquent teenager of a very specific Japanese kind: dyed hair, modified school uniform, squatting outside a convenience store, quite possibly a scooter.

   Nothing to do with Americans, despite the borrowed sound. A Japanese person calling someone ヤンキー is not commenting on their nationality.

2. 2.

   By extension, a style — ヤンキー座り is the flat-footed squat, and the aesthetic is a recognised nostalgic genre in film and manga.

Examples with translations

• 昔はヤンキーだったらしいよ、あの先生。

  Apparently that teacher was a proper delinquent back in the day.

• コンビニの前にヤンキーがたむろしてる。

  There are kids hanging around outside the convenience store.

Where it comes from

From English 'Yankee', by way of 1970s Osaka, where the loud American-influenced clothing of the Amerikamura district attached the name to the youths wearing it. The meaning drifted entirely to behaviour.

First attested: 1970s

Other forms

Romanised as:

yankī