OSAKA - Police across Japan are struggling to contain a rapidly spreading social media trend known as "Shorinji Racing," in which children and teenagers shout "Shorinji" outside police stations and police boxes before running away, with Osaka police recording approximately 280 related incidents and taking around 50 minors aged between 7 and 16 into protective custody or questioning them.
The bizarre activity, which has spread through videos posted on social media, involves young people deliberately provoking police officers, sometimes by approaching police facilities under false pretenses or making nuisance calls before fleeing. The youngest child taken into protective custody in Osaka was a 7-year-old first-grade elementary school student.
The trend has gained momentum in recent weeks, with videos showing participants approaching police boxes, shouting the phrase and running away while companions record their actions. Some children have pretended to report lost property before suddenly shouting "Shorinji," while others have used public telephones to dial 110, Japan's emergency police number, as part of the prank.
The origins of the expression remain unclear. Although Shorinji is associated with the famous Shaolin Temple in China, known for its martial arts tradition, investigators have not established any connection between the temple and the activity, nor have they identified who first started the trend.
Osaka Prefectural Police said incidents involving children approaching police boxes and shouting the phrase have increased sharply since late September. Authorities have identified at least 280 related cases and dealt with approximately 50 boys aged between 7 and 16, some of whom have also been arrested.
Hyogo Prefectural Police have also taken action against 25 young people, including elementary school students, as the phenomenon has spread across prefectural boundaries.
The situation escalated on November 2 when Osaka police arrested an 18-year-old suspected of obstructing police operations by using a social media account associated with Shorinji Racing to encourage reckless driving and other disruptive behavior. The account reportedly described itself as the original Shorinji Racing account and falsely suggested that its activities had official approval from Osaka Prefectural Police.
Despite the arrest, the incidents have continued.
In one case near Kansai Television's offices in Osaka, four boys, including junior high school students, approached a police box at around 7:20 p.m. while an officer was taking a break. The boys repeatedly opened and closed a sliding door, shouted "Shorinji Racing" and fled.
Footage captured by a vehicle's dashboard camera showed several police vehicles and officers gathering at the scene, apparently conducting an investigation. Three of the four boys were subsequently taken into protective custody, while the fourth remained at large at the time of the report.
Police said some children involved in the incidents had been influenced directly by videos they had seen online.
One boy told investigators that he had participated to impress his school friends. Another said he had watched videos on social media and thought it would be entertaining to surprise or provoke police officers.
The spread of the trend among increasingly younger children has raised particular concern among parents and educators.
A third-grade elementary school boy living in Osaka Prefecture, who said he had been invited to participate by older students, described how the activity had become popular at his school.
According to the boy, fourth-grade students were particularly involved, with many boys visiting police facilities after school. Some reportedly shouted at police officers, recorded the license plate numbers of police motorcycles and ran away.
The boy suggested that almost all the boys involved had visited a police station or police box as part of the activity.
He said an older student had invited him to join a Shorinji Racing outing, but he refused because he felt frightened.
"I didn't really want to go. I was a little scared," he said, explaining that his older sister had warned him against participating. He told the other children that he would not join them that day.
His mother expressed concern about how easily children can encounter such videos online and imitate activities without understanding the consequences.
She said children frequently encounter provocative content on social media and may regard dangerous or disruptive activities as entertaining, especially when encouraged by a group of friends.
She also questioned whether young children fully appreciate the risks involved or recognize that what appears to be a harmless prank could lead to police intervention.
The incidents have also drawn mixed reactions from members of the public. Some residents described the behavior as pointless and foolish, while others expressed surprise that elementary school children were participating. Parents raised concerns about how they could prevent their children from copying online trends, particularly as they grow older and gain more independent access to smartphones and social media.
Provoking police officers is not a new phenomenon in Japan. In the past, young people have thrown eggs at officers conducting traffic enforcement or deliberately fled from patrol cars on motorcycles in a form of cat-and-mouse pursuit sometimes described as playing tag with police.
However, experts say social media has fundamentally changed the scale and appeal of such behavior.
Masashi Usui, a professor at Niigata Seiryo University Graduate School who specializes in the psychology of juvenile delinquency, said similar pranks once attracted attention from only a handful of friends who happened to be watching.
"Young people have done strange things in front of police officers and then run away before, but in those days, only a few people there would applaud," Usui said. "With social media, far more people can watch, and some children find that attention extremely rewarding."
He said the possibility of attracting viewers from around the world could become a powerful incentive for young people to engage in increasingly disruptive behavior.
Usui also pointed to peer pressure and the desire to participate in popular trends as important factors behind the rapid spread of Shorinji Racing.
"The children probably don't think of themselves as doing something criminal," he said. "They think that if everyone else is doing it, they can do it too. Being at the forefront of something popular can give them a real sense of satisfaction."
He warned that stopping such trends becomes particularly difficult when children interpret widespread participation as evidence that the behavior is acceptable.
The legal consequences, however, can be serious.
Attorney Kyosuke Nishiwaki, a former television announcer, warned that making nuisance calls to police can constitute fraudulent obstruction of business, while interfering with officers performing their duties may amount to obstruction of official duties, an offense punishable by up to three years of imprisonment.
More dangerous activities, including throwing firecrackers or explosive devices into police facilities, could lead to substantially more serious criminal charges. Depending on the circumstances, offenses involving explosives can carry severe penalties, including life imprisonment or the death penalty.
Nishiwaki said the danger lies partly in how seemingly minor pranks can develop into more serious acts as participants compete for attention online.
He stressed that children watching videos of such incidents may gradually lose their sense that the behavior is wrong, particularly when the footage presents police harassment as entertainment.
The incidents have renewed debate over children's access to social media, with some parents and commentators questioning whether stronger age restrictions are necessary until young users develop sufficient judgment.
Others have emphasized the importance of improving digital literacy and helping children understand the difference between online entertainment and conduct that can cause real-world harm.
With the activity continuing despite arrests and police intervention, authorities face the challenge of preventing further copycat incidents while addressing the social media incentives that have helped turn a simple act of shouting and running away into a nationwide problem.
Source: KTV NEWS
