Senpai, Another Protector in Japan :: Essays Papers

Senpai, Another Protector in Japan In America, differences of days and status do not affect the kin between people as they do in Japan. Students can talk to professors in very casual ways. A freshman and a senior in college can be profound friends. In Japan, however, when Japanese people get together, their behaviors are influenced by an awareness of the order and rank of each person within the group according to age and social status. Respect to seniors is a social obligation that cannot be neglected. Nothing more clearly describes this hierarchal nature of Japanese society that the Japanese record senpai, meaning a senior or superior in any academic or corporate organization in our society. The attitude toward ones senpai is characterized by white-tieity, obedience, and trust.The relationship between inferiors or kohai and their senpai is very formal and strict. Japanese students meet their first senpai in junior or senior high school when they enroll in any kind of club, and this relationship lasts after their graduation. New students in the club are trained, just as soldiers are, to serve their senpai. When they talk to their senpai, they have to use a polite and formal language, called keigo in Japanese, to show respect to the senior. Whenever they meet their senpai, they have to bow. Calling seniors by their first names is a taboo. These very strict and formal relationships are similar to those in an army.In this army-like hierarchal system, obedience is the kohais most important value. When students enter the university, many different kinds of senpai wait for them in the clubs, in the dormitories, and in the departments of the university to which they belong. April is the month when school begins, the cherry blossoms take into full bloom, and have parties for the new students are seen under those cherry trees in the park. Each club, dorm, and department has its own welcome party, called a cherry blossom viewing party. Actually, these parties aim not to appreciate the beauty of nature but to make the new students drink as practically alcohol as possible. At the party, the poor freshmen have to drink all the cups of beer and sake, Japanese rice wine, given to them by their seniors. During cherry blossom viewing parties, ambulances come to parks and pick up the drunk students. They are forced to do whatever the seniors say, no matter how unreasonable or stupid it may sound.