70538
I noticed that on Japanese 履歴書s, graduating from graduate school is marked
with 修了 instead of 卒業 like for undergraduate and primary/secondary education.
I'm curious as to the reason this difference exists and in particular why the
distinction was made in the first place.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-15T12:10:44.740
66595
2019-09-04T13:57:02.143
10045
question
words
Why is graduating from graduate school 修了 instead of 卒業?
The word 卒業 usually means completing a predetermined set of courses or
classes. Therefore, you can use 卒業 for 小学校, 中学校, 高校, and 大学. However, since
大学院 does not usually have a predetermined set of courses but each student can
pick and make his/her own plan of study, the word 修了 is used for such cases.
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2019-05-02T22:48:00.147
67946
2019-05-02T22:48:00.147
33423
66595
answer
It's because most people go to graduate school expecting to earn a masters
degree or PhD but few go the full course. You earn a degree by taking required
classes, doing original research, writing a thesis and (successfully)
defending it. If you go to grad school and do all these things but your
doctoral thesis isn't up to snuff, then you can still say 修了 as in
博士課程を修了しました, but you'd be on thin ice if you claimed to have a PhD. If you
earned a doctorate, i.e., you successfully defended your doctoral thesis at an
accredited school and have the right to append PhD to your name, then you can
put (東京)大学博士号取得 on your 名刺。There are some gray areas that you can read about
on Japanese Wikipedia but the situation I have described corresponds to how
the terms are used in Japanese society and media.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-03T06:44:58.303
69855
2019-08-03T06:44:58.303
34897
66595
answer
修了 means to conclude education, training in company.  
Actually, in the end of every school year (middle of March), students in
elementary school, junior high school and high school do 修了.  
卒業 means to graduate from school and to leave an idol group.  
But graduating from graduate school is called 修了 more often than 卒業.
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2019-09-04T00:35:37.643
70524
2019-09-04T00:35:37.643
35021
66595
answer
There's a post (in Japanese) about this at: <http://wonder-
trend.com/archives/3651.html>

As I understand it, the reason basically is because in the context of a CV you
use 卒業 to indicate graduating (completing studies) from a specific school and
you use 修了 to indicate completing a specific program/course of study. See
also: [this goo dictionary comparison of 卒業 and
修了](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/thsrs/9715/meaning/m0u/%E4%BF%AE%E4%BA%86/)

For instance, you may write:

> 〇年〇月 ▲▲大学大学院××学研究科□□学専攻修士課程入学
>
> 〇年〇月 ▲▲大学大学院××学研究科□□学専攻修士課程修了

to say that at Time A you entered into a master's degree program at a certain
department in a certain college in a certain graduate school, and at Time B
you completed the master's degree program.

If you want to use 卒業, you could say something like 大学院を卒業した but without
context it's not clear if you mean you got a master's or a PhD then, or what
the subject was, and of course you want to be precise and pro forma on a 履歴書.

It's really not that different from English: You _graduate_ from a school, but
you _complete_ a degree or program. One often talks about graduating from
college without too much concern about the precise degree (BS, BA, etc) or
major. And in casual spoken conversation among fellow math PhDs I may say I
graduated (from grad school) in 2004. However, on my CV or to someone who
doesn't know what degree I have, I write "PhD, 2004" or say "I got my PhD in
2004."
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2019-09-04T13:57:02.143
70538
2019-09-04T13:57:02.143
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
-1
9199
66595
answer