The kohai is an underclassman that a senpai teaches. A senpai is someone a kohai looks up to and aspires to be like. For example, if there were a character named Haru, he could be called either Haru-senpai or just senpai. Senpai may be added to the end of someone’s name or it may be used as a title all on its own. In school, a student must be at least a year ahead of a kohai to be considered a senpai. On sports teams and in businesses a senpai is someone who has been on the team or has been in the organization longer than someone else. It’s a reflection of the social hierarchy in educational and professional settings. In Japan, senpai is an honorific for an upperclassman or a mentor figure. Sempai (though technically incorrect as there isn’t a standalone m sound in the Japanese alphabet) is easier to pronounce. The more common transcription of the word is senpai- sempai reflects a mispronunciation that’s the result of the interaction of the n consonant with the following p consonant, causing the n sound, when realized, to shift in anticipation for the p sound. One of these relationships is that of a senpai and a kohai. The hierarchical relationships in anime and manga reflect those in modern Japanese society.
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