Regarding the Japanese school year

So I learned something new last night while having dinner with my host family. I had always assumed that the Japanese school system would be pretty much the same as the Taiwanese one as far as the semester system is concerned, since there are so many other similarities.

In the United States, both semester and trimester systems begin in the Fall, generally in September, ending sometime in mid to late December, followed by a second semester in the beginning of the next year. Taiwan's fall semester is considerably longer, lasting until the Lunar New Year, so the entire school year is pushed back a bit deeper into the summer, but the basic structure is the same. Each Fall you begin a new school year.

In Japan, apparently the new school year starts in *April*. Colleges follow a 2-semester system, while elementary, middle, and high schools vary depending on what city they are located in. But for a college student, the first half of the school year starts in April and goes on until mid-July, while the second half begins sometime in late September to mid October, and continues until mid-February, with a small break in between on December 24th. (no relation to Christmas)

So this was the source of a misunderstanding by me - in the KCJS program, there are several Kyoto University students auditing the classes taught in English, and their semester has already ended. Some of them said they had graduated, which led me to assume that they had all finished a semester early... when in fact this is actually when the school year ends. Quite different!