sempai

— One boy in a boarding school emphasizing athletics says that his dorm mates tend to work problems out physically: “We often fight, and they often make me cry. . . . Even though I was told I’d only last in the dorm for three months, and others are dropping out, I’m still here—but the sempai are frightening.” In his school, the sempai have a special way of tormenting younger students, making them “do performance.”