Departments
Lesson 10
Banishment
tsuihoo 追放 / mura-hachibu 村八分
Combined with the verb suruする, tsuihoo 追放 means "to banish". We tend to think of "banishment" as something that occurred only in bygone times. However, people are still banished from countries on occasion:
Chuugoku no kokka anzen-kyoku wa Chuugoku-kei no gakusha o supai katsudoo o riyuu ni kokugai-tsuihoo shita.
中国の国家安全局は中国系米国人の学者をスパイ活動を理由に国外追放した。
"The Chinese State Security Bureau expelled a Chinese-American scholar on charges of spying."
In modern contexts, tsuihoo 追放often means "to drive out", rather than formal banishment from a nation. Tsuihoo can appear in work-related contexts, such as when a person is driven from their job:
Yamada-san wa ano jiken no tame ni genshoku kara tsuihoo sareru to omoimasu.
山田さんはあの事件のために現職から追放されると思います。
"I believe that Mr. Yamada will be driven from his current job due to that incident."
In previous times, the life of the average Japanese was centered on the village unit. Needless to say, it was essential for an individual to avoid conduct that would incur the wrath of one's neighbors. The term mura-hachibu 村八分 referred to a very severe "cold shoulder" treatment that might be received from one's fellow villagers in the case of bad behavior. Mura-hachibu 村八分might or might not include formal exile from the community. Although Japanese no longer live in the villages of earlier times, the phrase mura-hachibu ni sareru 村八分にされる still refers to a state of being ostracized by one's community or social circle.
