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Senpai (or sempai) generally means senior or mentor. By virtue, a senpai is older and has more experience than his junior/ protege termed as the kohai.
The senpai system is prevalent in Japanese schools and companies. In schools, younger students consider the upper classmen as their senpai. You can see the senpai system at work especially in sports and music clubs. The freshmen will be under the "mentorship" of an upperclassman. In companies, an entry-level employee will be placed under the responsibility of a senior member. Whether in school or companies, the senpai is expected to train and to guide his kohai, usually for a year. In return, the kohai is expected to respect and obey his senpai. The senpai and kohai relationship may last even after the mentorship term.
Since I'm a foreigner, I've never been actually under a senpai. But I saw how it worked in my schools and business classes. It may have its downsides but what I have seen, so far, are the good things about it.
1. It teaches responsibility
Whether students like it or not, they'll all be senpais once they finished their freshman year. The position as a "senpai" forces students to mature and grow up. It's like being an older brother or sister. Once your baby sister or brother is born, you can't help but feel a sense of responsibility. I've always been amazed how my cute and carefree 1st years can become responsible and competent senpais when they reach their 2nd year. You'd be surprised how shy and quiet students can turn into confident and assertive senpais in their clubs. I've also seen how creative and supportive students can be in training their kohais.
2. It teaches humility.
The senpai system operates based on seniority and not on competency. Even if a kohai has better skills or more knowledge, he still has to be under his senpai. In my younger (and more prideful) years, I would challenge the skills of my mentor. He had to prove worthy of my respect. (Really prideful, I was.) Now that I'm a teeny-little bit older, I learned that experience develops wisdom and character that cannot be learned by newbies- even the really skillful and knowledgeable ones. Experiece is, still, the best teacher. This truth resonates so well in the senpai system.
Last year in the girls's tennis club, there's a strong player in the second year. She has won championships in the prefecture in her elementary days. If not for the senpai system, she could have competed (and probably won) in her first and second years in junior high. But she had to step aside, give way to her seniors and pick tennis balls. She started competing last semester when her senpais finished their club term. If this were in another culture, maybe we would have called it unfair or something. But when I look it from the Japanese view, it's actually good character training. This girl would have her chance to play but she has to wait. Even if she's a great player, she still has to pick tennis balls. Even if her skills can help her team win, she has to give her seniors a chance to have their own victories.
At first, I thought that only the kohais can learn humility from the senpai system. In retrospect, not only the kohais can learn humility but even the senpais. Let me explain it this way: When you are in a position where you have to share your knowledge, that's when you'll realize how much you still have to learn. You know some things but not everything. It's only when you become a leader, a mentor, a senpai, that you'll understand how weak you still are.
3. It teaches empathy.
All Japanese will experience being a kohai and senpai at one point in their lives. They will experience being in authority and under authority. In effect, the Japanese can both empathize how it is to be accountable for another person and how it is to be in submission. I have a (wild) theory that perhaps, this is reason why the Japanese do not generally take advantage of each other. I observed how the senpais treat their kohais. The senpais are generally kind probably because they've also been in the kohai position before. The kohais don't argue or revolt against their senpais because they will be senpais too.
Senpai System in Politics and Economy
In a larger context of things, I think the senpai sytem is one of the pillars of the Japanese socio-economic and political system.
The government, the people in authority, has more sense of responsibility than government of its neighboring countries. (Hello, Philippines!) The GDP is largely spent on health-care, pension, and transportation. Education is free for all up to high school. Japanese people don't generally take advantage of each other. Their economy can show how the rich is not just hell-bent on getting richer. Japan also ranks 17th as the least corrupt nation in the world. The ratio of rich to poor is less than 5 percent. Average earners have a mere 3.4 percent advantage over the "poor" and the same numerical disadvantage from the rich. For example, if an average earner who gets 300,000 Yen monthly, the poor person earns about 290,000. That's a mere 10,000 Yen difference. Not bad to be poor in Japan, right?
Connecting the senpai system to how the government operates may sound far-fetched. But for someone like me who lived in one of the most corrupt nations in Asia, I can definitely see the connection. We don't have a "senpai" system in the Philippines. Mentorship is also not prevalent. The power structure in schools and companies are centralized. The system in the Philippines is largely based on competency that can breed unhealthy competition, unfair chances and inflated egos. In the Philippines, the government has a great disregard for its people. People in authority use their position to amass wealth. There's no sense of responsibility to the people. Instead, people in the government has a sense of entitlement. They expect people to be thankful for services that they should really be providing.
There's a big disparity of wealth, too. The Philippines has a lot of millionaires living side by side with poorer than poor people it almost feels like a crime. Large corporations give measly salaries to their employees while charging beastly prices for services and products to their clients. The practice of taking advantage or ''panlalamang'' in Tagalog is common even in the general populace. Common examples are cutting lines, under-the-table dealings and heck, even adding more breading to fried chickens.
In fairness to the government, people blame them all the time even if they shouldn't be blamed anymore. Filipinos have a problem submitting to authority. We're like rebelling teenagers who like to test the limit of laws. I think it's partly because not all of use are given the chance to be leaders, or mentors or senpais. We don't understand the difficulties of being in authority. We think that authority is restricting, that we should be able to do what we want for we are in a democracy. (Thanks USA for imbibing that to us.) We have rallies and boycotts all year it's already a way of living to some.
Senpai: We our each other's keeper.
At the core of the senpai system is accountability. Being a senpai and a kohai means you are accountable to each other. The senpai is accountable for the training and success of his kohai. The kohai is accountable to do well in his training and obey the instructions of his senpai. In essence, the senpai and kohai should have each other's back.
I personally think that the world today needs more people who have a sense of accountability. We need leaders who are accountable to their people, We need a citizenry who are accountable to each other. Because really, wouldn't it be nice to know someone's got your back?
