Foundations of Japanese etiquette -- a primer
of that group. (Sometimes being a foreigner is enough to exclude you. I won't go into that here.) Once you have been accepted, your relationship with the group as a whole and its individual members will forever change. I say forever, because the Japanese aren't real big on joining and quitting things. That means you're shiftless and untrustworthy. Instead, you are expected to be a member of a handful of groups and to remain a member for life. (Remember, I'm not talking only about formal groups like the VFW or the Eagle Scouts.) Once you are a member of the group, the rules become like those for a family; namely, seniors are treated with appropriate respect, juniors are looked after but are expected to perform some chores, etc. A good example would be my kendo group, where I was initially excused from doing chores like closing all the windows after practice because I was an outsider. Now, I feel it is expected of me if I am the most junior person present.
Senpai/Kohai
Finally, the Japanese concept of junior and senior within a group is based on a several factors, mainly:
*Age (older=senior)
*Rank within the group (president? manager? 3rd level black belt?)
*Length of membership in the group (how long has he been with the company?)
*Level/prestige of education
*Prestige of family (pretty rare these days)
This is made much easier by the fact that Japanese tend to advance uniformly. So, the oldest guy has probably been with the company the longest and probably holds the highest rank. Most people in the group probably have fairly similar educational backgrounds, or else they wouldn't be in the same group. And there are very few "name" families anymore, since WWII.
Within the group, however, there usually exists a special relationship between one senior (senpai) and one junior (kohai). This is similar to the mentor relationship in the West but is a bit more... intense. In this relationship, the senpai will be very protective and permissive of his kohai, and the kohai will work diligently to support the senpai whenever possible. There is actually a great amount of responsibility on each of them, as their senpai/kohai relationship will be known by all members of the group, and they will therefore be jointly held responsible for each other's failures. They will usually use fairly familiar language with each other, but it will be very heavy on rank-consciousness. In fact, the kohai (remember,
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