1.
clique; faction; power group; influential circle
A group of people connected by shared background, school, region, or family ties who exercise collective influence, especially in politics, business, or academia. Often carries a negative connotation of exclusivity and cronyism.
学閥が強い会社だ。
It's a company where school-based factions are powerful.
派閥政治は日本の政界の特徴の一つだ。
Factional politics is one of the features of the Japanese political world.
閥を作って人事を支配するのは問題だ。
It is problematic to form cliques and control personnel decisions.
A single-kanji word meaning 'clique' or 'faction,' most commonly encountered as a suffix forming compound nouns that name specific types of influential groups.
USAGE:
- Rarely used alone in modern Japanese. Overwhelmingly appears as a suffix in compounds:
- 学閥: university-based clique (alumni from the same prestigious university favoring each other)
- 派閥: political faction (subgroups within a party)
- 財閥: industrial/financial conglomerate (historically, the great family-owned business groups like Mitsubishi and Mitsui)
- 軍閥: military clique
- 閨閥: marriage-based power network
- The word generally implies that group loyalty overrides merit — promotions, contracts, and favors flow along 閥 lines.
COMMON COLLOCATIONS:
- 派閥: political faction
- 学閥: school-based clique
- 財閥: financial/industrial conglomerate
- 閥を作る: to form a clique
SIMILAR WORDS:
- 派閥: faction — the most common compound, specifically for political factions within a party
- 財閥: zaibatsu — Japan's historic family-run industrial conglomerates, a widely known term even in English
- 党派: party faction — a more neutral term for a group within a political party
- 一派: group; school; faction — a group united by a common leader or ideology