King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Japanese symbol for “graduation”

Romaji: sotsugyou
graduation; completion (of a course)

In Japanese, graduation is , read (sotsugyou).

Before using these characters for a tattoo, check them with a native speaker. Dictionary words often have several meanings, and the right choice depends on context.

Meanings

  1. n, vi, vs graduation; completion (of a course)
  2. n, vi, vs moving on (from); outgrowing (something)
  3. n, vi, vs leaving (a group, company, etc.); quitting

Kanji and stroke order

graduate, soldier, private
on: ソツ、シュツ
kun: そっ.する、お.える、お.わる、ついに
8 strokes · JLPT 2
business, vocation, arts
on: ギョウ、ゴウ
kun: わざ
13 strokes · JLPT 3

Other Japanese words for “graduation”

WordReadingMeaning
め megraduation; division (of a scale)
そつ sotsugraduation
ぶんかく bunkakudemarcation; graduation

Related words

Words that share a kanji.

WordReadingMeaning
しんそつ shinsotsunew graduate; recent graduate
だいそつ daisotsuuniversity graduate; having graduated from university
こうそつ kousotsuhaving graduated from high school (as one's highest completed level of education); high school graduate
なにとぞ nanitozoplease; kindly; I beg of you
のうそっちゅう nousotchuustroke; cerebral haemorrhage; cerebral hemorrhage
きぎょう kigyouenterprise; business; company
じぎょう jigyoubusiness; enterprise; venture
えいぎょう eigyoubusiness; trade; operations

See also: Chinese symbol for “graduation”.

Data: JMdict (CC BY-SA 4.0); KANJIDIC2 (CC BY-SA 4.0); KanjiVG (CC BY-SA 3.0); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.

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