Thread:Old McDonald/@comment-26480631-20160911092735/@comment-24494906-20160920232500

It's just a rank name. In some companies, you can also find people who have "associate" in their job description, and they are usually a rank below the people that do have the same job description except that there is no "associate" in there.

If you're really interested in it, I can look up what it's written like in Japanese and explain it to you in detail.