A Single Character Making a Big Difference of Three Months

It is the last day of the year in Japan – not the calendar year but the business/fiscal year (事業年度/会計年度). #年 means “year” but #年度 (Nendo) means business year. A single character 度can make a big difference – 3 months, in fact!
 
If you want to clearly refer to a calendar year, just add calendar 暦 in front of year like this: #暦年 .
 
31 March is also the end of the fourth quarter （#第4四半期） in the Japanese business world.
第4四半期 …Attentive Japanese learners may well have noted that there are two numbers in this term, i.e. 4 (an Arabic number) and 四 (a Kanji character for four). How clever to combine two different sets of characters! In this way, we avoid writing the number four twice (as in 第四四半期) which looks irritating.
 
年度 (Nendo) also refers to the school year in Japan.
Although we are in the year 2023, those finishing school this March are called graduates of the school year 2022 (2022年度 or 令和4年度 卒業生).
 
To be exact, this school year is adopted not only in Japan but also by all Japanese schools abroad. There are schools in Germany for the children of Japanese expatriates (日本人学校/Japanische Internationale Schule) as well as supplementary schools (補習校/Ergänzungschule) for Japanese learning. Their terms are organized according to the Japanese school year.
 
For children graduating from these schools, March is the month of farewells and the departure into their next stage of life.
ご卒業おめでとうございます。 Congratulations!

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