Seniority Order Archives - understand-culture

Fourth-Year Gods

Yonen kamisama, sannen tennō, ninen shimin, ichinen dorei: fourth-year students are gods, third-year students are emperors, second-year students are citizens, and first-year students are slaves. A 1991 paper in a bulletin of Kagoshima University cites the phrase as a way in which the hierarchy of university sports clubs was mocked and criticized.

The sports magazine Number used a short form in a headline that rejects it: Yonen kamisama, ichinen dorei de wa nai. It is not fourth-year gods and first-year slaves.

Brother and Sister System

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.

Vertical Society

In February 1967, Kōdansha published Nakane Chie’s Tate shakai no ningen kankei (Human Relations in a Vertical Society). It grew out of an article in the May 1964 issue of the magazine Chūō Kōron. The book became a long-seller. One account puts its sales in Japan at 1.17 million copies, another at more than 1.16 million in 124 printings.

Nakane herself said that it is a misunderstanding to read tate, vertical, as top-down command or as a structure of power.

Same Year of Entry

Dōki (同期): of the same period. The Daijisen dictionary defines it as entering a school, graduating or joining a company in the same year. The Japanese Wiktionary lists the kinds of entry the word covers: school, company, bank, office, government agency, ministry and the armed forces.

Attendants

In a sumo stable, the stablemaster assigns young wrestlers of makushita rank and below to each sekitori, a wrestler of the top two divisions. They serve him as tsukebito, attendants.

The number has no fixed rule. A jūryō wrestler is said to have one or two attendants, a makuuchi wrestler two or three, an ōzeki three or four, and a yokozuna seven to ten.

Tea Backstage

A zenza is an apprentice rakugo storyteller. On stage, the zenza turns the mekuri, the card that shows the name of the next performer. He folds the masters’ haori jackets and kimono.

He takes particular care over serving tea. One storyteller recalled for Gendai Business: Mazu shishōgata ga irasshattara ocha o dasu. Kimono ni kigae owattara ocha o dasu. Kōza ga owattara ocha o dasu. When the masters arrive, serve tea. When they have changed into kimono, serve tea. When they come off the stage, serve tea.

Seniors Pay

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.

One Vice-Minister per Year

In Japan’s central ministries, the year a career official entered the ministry still matters. Normally, only one member of each entry year becomes administrative vice-minister, the top post in the ministry. The magazine Gendai Business explains that the other members of that year leave the ministry before this happens.

Senior and Junior

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.

Calling Everyone San

At Muji, the retailer run by Ryohin Keikaku, everyone is called by name with san. This applies to men and women, to subordinates and to superiors alike.

Business magazines report that more and more companies ask employees to address superiors with san instead of their job titles, regardless of position, age or year of entry.