Teenagers in uniform tank tops and shorts, their hair all cropped in the same manner, march in lines at an athletic field. It looks like a military boot camp, but in actuality is an athletic festival at a juvenile reformatory in Hachioji, western Tokyo.
"Frankly speaking, they are bad," said an instructor of the boy's correctional facility. The majority of inmates at Tama Juvenile Training School have committed violent crimes, including rape, robbery, assault and assault resulting in death.
While the number of juvenile offenders younger than 20 held by police -- aside from traffic violators -- reached 152,813 in 2000, only 6,052 were sent to juvenile reformatories the same year. "You could say these kinds are the elite of juvenile delinquents," the instructor said.