Japanese society is said to be a “tate (vertical)-society”. This is true in terms of honorifics. You have to use polite words for people who are older than you. In this way, Japanese people judge things based on whether they are superior, equal, or inferior. In schools, it is deviation score, in companies, it is position, title, and so on.
The lower person is humble and the higher person is overbearing. This is why power harassment often occurs . Also, sexual harassment occurs because men have traditionally been seen as superior to women (the Japanese word shujin(master=husband) already suggests this relationship. Women are the servants).
The biggest problem is that the basis of Japanese society is, in my words, “sumo mentality,” which is based on the absolute importance of status. It means that wrestlers of higher rank in the sumo world treat those of lower rank lightly.
I believe that Japanese people are kind and friendly, constitute a harmonious society, and have many of the world’s No. 1 qualities. However, as every nation has a fault, the “tate-society” is also the weak point of the Japanese people. If you look back on the Japanese, you will realize that everyone has this mentality.
In response to this, I believe it is important to adopt a “horizontal way of thinking”. In other words, human beings are essentially equal in status. In the U.S.,for example, university students call their professors by their first names, such as Bill or Robert. In other words, I think this is based on the idea that even though we may have a superior/subordinate relationship in our studies, we are equal as individuals. This does not mean that the American way of thinking is all good.
What I am trying to say is that we Japanese need to be aware of the “sumo mentality” in each of us, and then overcome it. Sumo wrestlers have equal human relationships outside of sumo. There are many other worlds outside of sumo, and if they compete in those worlds, they will have different relationships with each other.
