Personally I don't consider it a crime

[Steve Bildermann]

Yoots charged with dueling.

Youths face charges over 113-year-old dueling crime

I have always thought that screaming 'you fucking asshole, I'm going to kick your sorry butt into next week ' sort of pales in significance compared to the chilling words 'Well sir, in this matter I must demand satisfaction. My seconds will call on you in the morning'

Ahhhhhh - Janos Bolyai where are you when we need you?

[Maciamo]

Is duelling only with weapons or also include bare hand fights ?

I thought duelling was only with a sword or gun and usually to death.

I guess these youth didn't fight to death one by one. There is no mention of weapons of any kind.

If this is a duel, then two salarymen fighting in a station also is.

Then who sued these guys to court over such charges ? I guess Japanese lawyers have no idea of what duelling mean nowadays.

[Steve Bildermann]

In this matter I have some small knowledge.

There are (as you might expect) quite a few rules to dueling. The classic work on the subject is 'The Code Duello' and a quick web search will take you to:

http://www.cbc2.org/faculty/dabbott/Duello1.html

Since the turn of the century most countries have made formal duels illegal. There are some notable exceptions. Mexico and Sicily have not and formal duels (with the results published in the newspapers) are still an event.

By tradition pistols and swords were the designated weapons but with the demise of decent swordsmanship an amended rule was adopted in which the challenger would have the right to select time and place and the challenged could elect weapons. This led to some rather farcical duels fought with feather dusters and pillows. However, if the challenger insists on formal rules then the issue must be settled by

- one party admitting defeat and aplogizing (at any stage)
- the copious drawing of blood (by rules a liter or more)
- the removal of a limb
- death (within 3 full days of the duel)

Now this Japanese affair may prove interesting if in fact it can be proven that all parties agreed to a formal duel.

[Crispy]

A duel with katanas would be over pretty damned fast, even if they didn't know how to use them.

[gaijinzilla]

Keitais at twenty paces

[kurohinge1]

* bump *

It appears that nothing's new under the sun ...

Youths arrested for violating 116-year-old dueling law

Two groups of youths who fought each other in pairs to settle a dispute have been arrested for bodily injury and dueling, a practice outlawed in Japan in the 1880s, police said.

Arrested were 12 youths aged between 15 and 17 from Yokohama and the Tokyo Metropolitan area. Six of them were first-year high school students and the other six had just graduated from junior high school.

Investigators said they gathered in a park in Tokyo's Setagaya-ku at about 8:50 p.m. on March 11 to settle trouble over the sale of a motorcycle, and formed six pairs to fight each other in duels. One person suffered injuries to his arm and head that took about two weeks to heal.

Members of the two groups set rules for the bouts, including that dueling partners had to be chosen with consent from both sides, hair-pulling was not allowed, opponents would keep fighting until one of them stopped moving if neither side gave up, and that fighting to the death was permitted.

The group from Yokohama was ahead by three wins to two and the two sides were staging the sixth duel when police officers arrived and broke up the fight.

... Dueling was forbidden by law in Japan in 1889. In March this year six junior high school students from the Tokyo city of Kunitachi who dueled each other were arrested and referred to prosecutors ... more

Surely the above is a recipe for a game show

They could call it Duelling Banchou ... and I think you know what the theme music would be.