(ENG-Version)

In this section I'd like to submit to your appreciation several interviews of different sempai of mine. Each sempai is different from the others as far as the martial arts background, the teachers and lifestyle are concerned and in this way, all of them received different gifts from their Budo life.

First of all I want to make clear that the concept of sempai in the Japanese society and in the dojo life is actually the same. Most of the foreigners don't grasp all of its intricacies and have a hard time to understand what and who is the "sempai". In the Japanese culture the "sempai" is someone who will have a bigger influence on your private, social and Budo life than books could tell you. I will try to give an easy and simple explanation of this topic by comparing the normal Japanese society life with the Budo life.

At the beginning of my 10 years of Japanese life I felt and identified the "sempai" as a stressful character; I was the typical foreigner full of expectations and hungry for knowledge. Every suggestion and order from people whom I didn't consider my "friends" was seen as a waste of time by me. My personal priorities and wishes about what is right or not were guiding me in everyday's life. One of the problems of the western culture is the idea to think to know everything and not accept the fact that sometimes it is even fine not to have a point or an opinion at all. To admit having no opinion about something doesn't mean to be childish or stupid; it only means to be honest and ready to listen to new point of views with an open mind.

This frame of mind is sometimes called humility and it's a great skill. Well, when you start your first day in a Japanese company, it does not matter whether you are a talented engineer a teacher or a waiter because you are not supposed to know anything about what your employer have hired you for. The first rule to learn in a Japanese company (in Japanese "kaisha") is to learn how to move according to your present position and to be careful not to trespass on other people's spaces, decisions and competences. The reason of this is called "hierarchy".  

In the Latin countries “hierarchy” sounds like a "bad word" but in Japan (I don’t know about the other Asian countries because I’ve never been there) it is the very basis of every single kind of work and human relationship.

When you start your first day at work your boss gives you a "tutor" (who could be called a sempai); this person will be your source of inspiration and will provide you with all the instruction you need to work properly and deal with all the problems you’ll have to face in your career. He will be your first link with your superior and he will represent even the first link with your new lifestyle. 

As you become more competent, you will be given other sempai who will carry on your instruction on other aspects of your job.

It is therefore in the logic of this system that you will become in time the sempai of newer recruits in your company. 

The sempai will play the role of filter and he/she will be the one to inform you about most of the "upper floors" directives concerning you. Another aspect of the Japanese culture unknown to many foreigners is the total absence of a direct relationship between the "boss" and the new recruits; the boss never explains or justifies his decisions to them. The boss presupposes that the new recruits don’t have the required experience to have a proper discussion with him and that it would be a breach of etiquette towards all his other "kohai" (person hierarchically under him but more important than the recruits).

Thus it is probably easier to understand why people cannot fathom the depth and importance of the sempai’s role who is to be trusted unconditionally because he is in position to give you the best suggestions based on his personal experience and the boss' directives.

Now if you think of the boss as being the Budo Teacher and of the tutor as being the sempai, you can easily understand that there is no difference.

It is like when you throw a stone into the calm water: ripples will grow larger and larger. This is exactly what happens in life. 

We go through a succession of stages, just like in the concept of hierarchy to be found in the Japanese society and in the Budo life: we start as the smallest of ripples until we grow to become the largest one. Who has ever become a sensei without being first a student?

• William Gillespie interview