jouge kankei

It means "hierarchical relationship" in Japanese.

Japanese is famous with it's "up and down" culture. It can be seen not only through actions but also in the honorific language in Japanese language, and so hierarchical relationship is a very important aspect in daily lives. Starting from young, Japanese has adopt this culture. It can be in many ways; according to age, according to academic background, timeline being in an organization etc, and it became more important when one goes into the society.

I think this jouge kankei thing is not a popular term among gaijin (foreigners), mainly because we do not have the culture of placing people up and down in a relationship. (Actually I would oppose the previous statement. Asians do actually have some aspect in honorific language). Even young Japanese today don't really take jouge kankei seriously (I think). I would say it's because of the influence from the West, where the society there looks more to the results, rather than the order.

Of course, some might say it's ridiculous to rank someone through age etc even if the person is showing a lower ability. Or some might say respect is to be earned through hard work, and not just by saying "yes sir!" to someone just because he is older.

I personally like and accept the jouge kankei culture, maybe because I've grew up in different organizations and I've experience the culture ever since I was young. In fact, I think most of my long term relationships are based on junior-senior basis. Communication and trust will be and can be achieved through this junior-senior relationship.

Approving or opposing, jouge kankei is a way of improving communication. Do you agree on jouge kankei?