1950s/60s
Subcultures that emerged in the early post-war decades include the "motorcycle-riding Thunder Tribe (kaminarizoku), the amplified-music-loving Electric Tribe (erekizoku), and the Psychedelic Tribe (saikezoku)."[1]
Although zoku was applied to others in society, like senior citizens, salarymen, and political activists (e.g. Uyoku dantai), it was mostly used to label youth subcultures.
Shintaro Ishihara's 1950s novel Season of the Sun gave rise to a reckless and carefree expression of youth which became stylised in subsequent films as taiyo zoku (sun tribe). This subculture had some parallels with the rocker and greaser subcultures being promoted by Hollywood films such as Rebel without a Cause. Traditional Japanese considered the post-war taiyo zoku violent and promiscuous. Some Japanese youths admired American music, and Japanese Bill Haley clones were known as rokabiri zoku (the rockabilly tribe).
At the height of the hippy movement and the psychedelic age in the 1960s, the futen zoku or vagabond tribe emerged in the Shinjuku area of Japan. Japanese media depicted them as dangerous because of their substance abuse and their public presence.[2] More recreational drug users who patronized clubs and coffee shops were known as danmo zoku.