Hierarchy

Similar to my post about teamwork, this is something I wrote about hierarchy in Japan.

What are ways that you observe hierarchy actively at play in Japanese schools?  For example, different grades might wear different colored sports uniforms (such as green for freshman, blue for seniors and such).  Please describe any specific examples that you have observed.  This could include the behavior of students to each other, or teachers to students, or teacher to principal and so forth.

Every school and every person is different, but I’ll tell you about a few things I’ve observed at my school specifically.

I  am working at Isawa Junior High School.  I live in a town that is notorious for an abnormal amount of yakuza residents and activity.  There are many onsens and pachinkos here as well.  Isawa JH is the largest Junior High School in the entire prefecture (Yamanashi).  There is a very large variety of students and demographics here.  Some students have a lot of  money, while other students are very poor and have financial assistance from the city or the government.  There are some students who are very quiet and study very hard, but there are also a large number of “troubled” students.  These students are either emotionally unstable, or come from unstable families.  These students speak rudely to teachers and peers alike, and do not pay much attention to the hierarchy of the system.
Other students however will use polite speech with teachers, students in higher grades, and sports senpai.

In English club we have one first-year (US equivalent 7th grader), one second-year (US 8th grader), and a number of third-years (US 9th graders).  The first and second-year students are siblings, and they speak to each other in casual Japanese in front of everyone.  These two use polite Japanese to the teachers and the rest of the third years in the club.  The third-years speak to each other and the teachers casually.   Actually, in general the students at ISJ tend to use casual Japanese with the teachers.  Sometimes the teachers get angry since they are supposed to be polite, but sometimes they let it slide.  Some speak very rudely (depending on the environment in which they were raised) and others speak very politely.

There are three school colors, green, blue and red.  The students will always remain the same color throughout the three years.  This year first-years are green, second years are blue and third years are red.  Next year when the third-years graduate, the new first-years will be red and everything will rotate up one.

Not only do I notice a hierarchy between students, but also between teachers.  The teachers higher up, like the principal, vice principals, and head of education department, all talk to  everyone else using casual Japanese.  They speak in polite Japanese to  people from the board of education, or to other teachers or officials who come to the school on special occasions.  The teachers who have  been here for a long time, or the head of the student divisions will speak to the other teachers in casual Japanese, but will speak to the P,  and VP politely.  The newest teachers (teachers rotate in and out of  schools every year), even if they have had years experience in different  locations, will speak to everyone politely.

I try to follow this code but at times I’m expected to give answers quickly and my Japanese is not always correct or formal.

There is also a janitor at the school who does a variety of tasks.  He is in his eighties, but he is not a teacher.  He usually just talks to everyone casually except for when adult visitors come to the school.  I’m guessing this is not because of his position (as he is significantly 'lower’ in the hierarchy), but because of his age.  He is at least 20 years older than everyone else working here.

When  I first started working here, the janitor, who also serves everyone the  morning tea/coffee, saw me make myself some instant coffee.  He then started serving me coffee in the morning, which is designated for the people who pay extra for it.  I told him that I wasn’t, and didn’t plan on paying extra so he shouldn’t give me the coffee.  He and another teacher who knew about it, told me not to worry.  This went on for a full semester.  At the beginning of the next term, one of the direct teachers saw that I was still receiving coffee and she told me very bluntly (she has lived in Canada) that this is not OK.  She told me that everyone knew, and that the money collector would start asking me for money.  I told her that I never asked for the coffee, and confronted the janitor.   I told him to stop giving me coffee in the morning because it was for  the people who paid and I was reprimanded.
The next morning he gave me coffee again, but this time it was from the instant coffee jar that everyone is allowed to share.  A different teacher got wind of this and told me that it still wasn’t OK.  The problem isn’t that I was drinking the coffee (as it’s for everyone), the problem was that he was treating me differently than anyone else.  She wanted him to serve me tea like he was supposed to.  I confronted him again and asked him to stop.  A younger teacher confronted him as well, and he blew up at her.

He stopped serving me coffee in the morning like I asked, but now every once in a  while he serves me ice coffee at random times during the day that he buys and brings to school himself.  I’m afraid that this will become a problem if someone else figures it out, but I’m not too sure what to do about the situation since he’s just trying to be nice and share his drink.  This is kind of related to hierarchy, but in the opposite effect since they want everyone to be served the same regardless of position, status, or race.  I don’t think he treats me differently because I’m a foreigner, as I think he’d do the same for a Japanese person he took a liking to.

Another thing about the tea; because there are so many teachers at the school, it is impossible for the janitor to do it all on his own.  I don’t know if this is an expectation or if it is just  a cultural understanding, but the youngest (and newest) female teachers help serve and distribute the tea and coffee in the morning.  The majority of the people who help are women in their twenties.  Every once in a while a male (usually younger) teacher will help as well, but rarely.  I  have never once seen an older man other than the janitor serve the tea here.

Last year there was one man (mid thirties?) who would serve the tea often, but a young teacher would run over and try to take it away from him.  I spoke to the teacher and she said that she thought he was being mean when he tried to help with the tea, and especially when he wouldn’t let a younger teacher take over.  I thought he was just trying to be nice, but she said that since he is a senpai he is supposed to let someone else take over.  She interpreted his resistance as a form of “ijime," or bullying.

Also, every once in a while when an okyakusama, customer, comes for the principal, or comes to meet with a man, they ask a young female who happens to be in the office to put some tea together and serve it to the visitor.

If there is a large staff meeting, the  women scramble to put tea in all of the cups to serve it, as well as wash everything when it’s over.

I asked Elliott about what he observed in the elementary schools, and the youngest children are taught that the older children are like their older brothers and sisters.  They also tell the older children (fifth and sixth graders) to help out with all of the younger children.  For the entrance ceremony, they had the 6th graders march in the new first graders for the event.

This is similar in the JHS.  At times if a third year catches a first year doing something they aren't supposed to, they scold them and report the incident to the teachers.