Functional Order: Ni - Fe - Ti - Se
This article will contain spoilers about the main plot of the game and Haru’s confidant, as a way to provide the most comprehensive analysis.
On a side note, since Haru has a well-balanced stack, we didn’t focus our article on splitting her mourning from her cognition, due to how well she reacted.
Perceiving Functional Axis
Introverted Intuition (Ni) / Extroverted Sensing (Se)
Haru isn’t a textbook INFJ, but her stack is well balanced. This is especially true considering how well she reacted to her father’s death, never falling into loops or grips. Even if she isn’t the stereotypical INFJ, her dominant Ni is sound and only improves during her confidant. When we first meet Haru, she doesn’t even take into account the option to use Ni as a tool to assess her future: since her father owns a big company in the food market, he planned an arranged marriage for her, thus preserving the wellness of his business.
After her father’s death, though, Haru finds herself in a tough position. Talking about cognition, her Ni shows during her confidant, in which Haru understands how she can’t live her life following blindly her father’s will or, even worse, being under the influence of shareholders who only want to take advantage of her for the sake of mere profit. Therefore, Haru begins to question herself about what she really wants to do and her answer is to develop her passion for coffee beans and vegetables into a business, similarly to her grandfather’s café.
This is also a clear indicator of her well-developed inferior Se. Haru defines a concrete, plausible plan using Se as a tool to realize her wish. She doesn’t think about an abstract and intangible idea, she neither ruminates on future possibilities. On contrary, she listens to the protagonist’s advices, she clears her mind, and then she speaks to Okumura’s Food shareholders about her future in the company. So, in the end, she can follow her dream by taking concrete steps.
Haru’s inferior Se is initially less balanced though, she blindly follows Morgana without thinking about the consequences of her actions, and thus she finds herself questioning her behaviours. But as a healthy Se user, when the team tells her the truth she no longer lies to herself and accepts reality as it is.
Haru further nurtures her inferior Se growing vegetables on Shujin Academy’s rooftop. This may seem a little detail, especially compared to how her Se plays a role in her search for a meaningful activity to do as a living. But practical hobbies that require to use one’s senses are in general a great way to nurture inferior Se and Haru does it in a surprisingly healthy way.
Extroverted Feeling (Fe) / Introverted Thinking (Ti)
Haru is deeply concerned with the environment’s emotional state and her main focus is on the well-being of her teammates. When the phantom thieves help her to defeat Okumura’s shadow, she invites them to spend a night at Tokyo Destinyland, making a reservation for the entire park. Even in more trivial situations, Haru is always focused on people: she’s extremely polite, be it in face-to-face interactions or on the group chat, never stepping on someone’s toes, because breaking social harmony scares her and she really wants to get along with everyone.
Haru also has a surprisingly balanced Fe, especially considering how she reacted to her father’s death. She initially suspected the phantom thieves but, to be honest, this is a human reaction to a tragic event that left her in sorrow and without a stable emotional support system. Yet, after few days, Haru apologizes with the group, thus she starts again to use her Fe in an healthy way.
During her confidant, Haru’s Fe aids her dominant Ni when she tries to define a suitable and meaningful future for herself. Her wish to open a coffee chain like her grandfather did isn’t only a choice driven by Ni, as she also cares about how this activity will positively impact the life of her customers. Haru then uses her Fe to influence the emotional environment of Okumura’s Food shareholders. She takes action (Se) with a clear goal in mind (Ni), aware of her role in the company (Ti), to find a common ground for everyone (Fe).
Haru’s Fe is paired with tertiary Ti, although finding clues about her Ti isn’t simple. During her confidant, Haru takes her time to dissect Okumura’s Food, so she can understand “the rules of the game” and create an internal logical system to apply in her decision-making process. She then figures out the hierarchy in the company and the dynamics underlying it (this is also due to her Fe). So, even if the game focuses more on her tendency to ease the emotional environment and her research of a meaningful activity to do as a living, her Ti shows a little in her confidant. At the same time, Haru never makes choices based on the most efficient way to solve a problem and her approach is always people-oriented, which excludes Te from the equation. And given how we think it’s undeniable that Haru has Fe in a high position in the stack and that she’s an introvert, this implies tertiary Ti by a process of elimination. Finally, as a teenager, it’s common to have a tertiary function not so evident.
Also typed as: INFP, ISFJ
Another consideration about Haru revolves around how Ni and Fe may mimic Fi when placed in high positions in the stack. Haru’s auxiliary Fe is clearly visible in all her behaviours, but for the sake of discussion we would like to distinguish it from dominant Fi.
Ni and Fi are both introverted function, thus they are subjective. The biggest difference between them resides in how Ni searches for a meaningful future, opposed to how Fi prioritizes activities which enhance and express one’s sense of self. Dominant Ni, even if subjective, operates as a perceiving function, thus the judgement stems from the auxiliary one: Te or Fe. As we stated above, it is clear how Haru aids her choices not with a logical and efficient approach (Te), but rather with one based on people’s well-being (Fe). Dominant Fi may lead an IxFP to pursue a people-based cause, but Haru does it as a way to create and maintain social harmony, not because she thinks it’s right or her duty.
So, even if one doesn’t clearly see how Fe is Haru’s judging function, Fi can also be excluded since it implies Te and because there’s a difference between what is subjectively perceived as meaningful through Ni and what is subjectively felt as meaningful through Fi.
Another take on Haru’s type is ISFJ. We don’t think Haru is a Si-dom because her methods and motivations doesn’t remind of Si. As always, understanding the difference between two function is a process based on cognition rather than behaviours. Sure she is quiet and maybe one could say she’s traditionalist, but dominant Si means using the past and the information one gained as a constant comparison to find patterns that worked well and that can be applied to the present. Haru doesn’t do that, as her focus lays way more in the future and in how she envisions a meaningful outcome in her life.Haru doesn’t look at the future in a stereotyped Ni-dom way, something people may misinterpret as future forecasting or mind-reading. Haru, on the other hand, tries to unravel abstract patterns, thus finding what she really want to do as a lifelong activity. So, in a less stereotyped and more realistic process, Haru relies on her dominant Ni to delve into possibilities. Ni doesn’t only refer to the actualization of a single vision, since it’s tied to Se: a healthy Ni must consider more than one option and need to be flexible enough to adapt its vision to reality and its limits. What Haru does may seem simple: to open a business creating a pleasant environment for her customers. However, since society is complex and subject to constant change, this is a more tangled puzzle to solve.
So, especially seeing how many people unfortunately mistake Ni and Si motives with stereotypes based on the future and the past, it’s easy to mistype an INFJ as an ISFJ or vice-versa. The real difference is between how and why Haru consider the past and the future, not the mere focus on one or both of them.
Let’s look at both Makoto (ISTJ) and Haru’s confidant themes.
Makoto lived her life in a box with a narrow-minded attitude. At first she asks protagonist for help because she feels she reached a limit and wants to broaden her horizons and be more open (inferior Ne), and in the process she finds the true meaning of her studies and learns to be less judgy (healthy tertiary Fi).
Haru, on the other hand, perfectly knows that marrying Sugimura isn’t what will make her happy, but she needs to build the confidence to speak about it to the company because she doesn’t want to damage other people with a choice perceived as selfish (a problem tied to auxiliary Fe). Haru also knows that she want to create a meaningful business which can be both expression of her ideals and a place where people can find comfort. She spends some time reflecting upon it, but the association with her grandfather’s café doesn’t come because it was a thing that worked well in the past and that can be replied (on contrary, the shop wasn’t profitable), but rather because it’s something that’s close to her personal idea of a nice place built around people.
