Three biker gang members face up to six months in jail or a 100,000 yen fine after earning the dubious honor of being the first people arrested under a controversial ordinance aiming to rid the Peace City of threatening motorcyclists, police told the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper on November 24.

Police said the three were arrested for violating a Hiroshima Municipal Government ordinance banning biker gang members from assembling in the public areas throughout the city.

"Long plagued by violence from biker gangs, Hiroshima's contentious ordinance was enacted in April. It forbids biker gangs from assembling in public areas throughout the city, but requires authorities to issue at least three warnings to break up before arrests can be made," the newspaper reported.

Police told the newspaper that one adult and two teenagers were wearing the uniforms of a biker gang when they assembled with about 60 other bikers in a Hiroshima park on Saturday night. Officers arrived and ordered the bikers to go away, but three of them refused to do so. After standing their ground through another two warnings, they were arrested.