On March 8, 2018, the shogi player Fujii Sōta met his own teacher, Sugimoto Masataka, in an official game for the first time. Fujii won in 111 moves.
On June 20, 2020, they met again, and Fujii won in 95 moves. Daily Sports wrote that Fujii had once again made an ongaeshi, a repayment of a debt of gratitude, to his teacher.
Natsume Sōseki’s novel Kokoro ran in the Asahi Shimbun from April 20 to August 11, 1914. Its three parts are “Sensei and I,” “My Parents and I” and “Sensei and His Testament.” A young man meets an older man whom he calls sensei. In the last part, sensei leaves him a letter, a testament, that tells the story of his life.
A bookstore column calls it the work used most often in junior and senior high school Japanese textbooks.
Some Japanese companies use a burazā shisutā seido, a brother and sister system. Each new employee is assigned a senpai, a more senior employee, who guides the newcomer in how to approach the work and how to think about it. At one brewer, according to an HR glossary, the guidance lasts for the first four months after joining.
Kawaigaru (可愛がる): in everyday speech, to treat with affection. An article in the reference work Imidas calls its sumo use slang that turns the meaning around. In sumo, it means to train lower-ranked wrestlers hard and bring them up. The kawaigari reported in the media is butsukari-geiko, collision practice, made harder than usual.
In September 2023, a 25-year-old member of the Takarazuka Revue died. On November 14, 2023, the company said at a press conference that it could not confirm any bullying or harassment, and that the guidance by jōkyūsei, senior members, had been within the scope of work.
On March 28, 2024, the company and its parent group signed an agreement with the family. They accepted 14 of the 15 acts of harassment that the family had raised, and the chairman of the parent group apologized in person.
Oyabun kobun (親分子分): parent role and child role. The encyclopedia Mypedia defines it as a relationship of domination and subordination that a protector forms with a dependent within a social group, especially one that involves the whole person and resembles that of parent and child.
Another encyclopedia notes that the phrase now calls to mind the yakuza or political factions. In sociology and folklore studies, however, it is a key term for understanding the structure of Japanese society.
In Japanese university clubs, seniors often pay for juniors. A former club member told Money Post: Ichinensei ni wa ichinenkan, senpai ga zengaku ogoru no ga dentō deshita. It was our tradition that the seniors paid the whole bill for first-year students for a full year.
The duty is felt. In a survey of 406 people by the company LeoSophia about paying for juniors, 231 said it was a slight burden and 56 a heavy burden. 119 said it was no burden.
In the tea ceremony, the first stage of training is warigeiko, practice in parts. It covers the basic procedures for thin and thick tea, almost everything that people picture when they think of the tea ceremony.
A paper in the repository of Aichi University says that warigeiko is basically taught not by the master but by the master’s senior pupils. It calls this stage of learning a stage of watching.
Since April 1989, newly appointed teachers at national and public schools in Japan have gone through shoninsha kenshū, initial training. The law requires the training to last one year from the date of hiring.
For each new teacher, a shidō kyōin, a guiding teacher, is appointed from among the vice principal, the teachers and the lecturers of the same school.
Senpai (先輩): a person who entered the same school or workplace earlier. Also a person above oneself in age, position or experience.
Kōhai (後輩): the opposite of senpai.
Tameguchi (ため口): a younger person speaking to an older person as an equal.