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N3How you sound · Sep 28, 2026

Retired in Japanese: 引退いんたい vs 退職たいしょく (and Idol 卒業そつぎょう)

Retired in Japanese is 引退いんたい (intai) or 退職たいしょく (taishoku). 引退いんたい means retiring from a career, sport, or public role — permanently, as an identity. 退職たいしょく (taishoku) means leaving a company job, which says nothing about whether you'll work again. A boxer 引退いんたいします once; a salaryman 退職たいしょくします and might start a new job Monday.

Learners usually meet 引退いんたい and 退職たいしょく as if they're interchangeable translations of "retire," reach for whichever one they memorized first, and end up saying something slightly wrong — "he quit boxing" when they meant "he changed jobs," or the reverse. The two words aren't synonyms; they answer different questions.

The basics

What does 退職たいしょく mean?

退職たいしょく (たいしょく, taishoku) is leaving your current job or employer. It's a neutral, administrative word — the kind you'd see on a form.

来月らいげつ、会社かいしゃを退職たいしょくします。 — I'm leaving the company next month. (neutral, could be to a new job, could be to nothing) 彼かれは10年ねん勤つとめた会社かいしゃを退職たいしょくした。 — He left the company he'd worked at for ten years. (neutral, no implication about what's next)

退職たいしょく says nothing about your future. You can 退職たいしょく on Friday and start a new job on Monday — the word only describes the exit, not a life stage.

What does 引退いんたい mean?

引退いんたい (いんたい, intai) is stepping away from a career, sport, or public role for good — it's an identity change, not a job change.

あの選手せんしゅは去年きょねん引退いんたいした。 — That athlete retired last year. (their career as an athlete is over) 祖父そふは80歳さいまで医者いしゃとして働はたらき、引退いんたいした。 — My grandfather worked as a doctor until 80 and then retired. (the end of a working life, not just one job)

You can 退職たいしょく from a company many times over a career. You generally only 引退いんたい once from a given identity — "athlete," "doctor," "actor" — because the whole point of the word is that it's the end.

Can you use both for the same person?

Yes, and it's common — they describe two different transitions in the same life:

彼かれは35歳さいでプロサッカー選手せんしゅを引退いんたいし、コーチとして会社かいしゃに再就職さいしゅうしょくした。 — He retired as a pro soccer player at 35 and got a new job as a coach. (引退いんたい ends the "player" identity; 再就職さいしゅうしょく starts a new job — 退職たいしょく isn't even needed here since he's not leaving a company) 祖母そぼは60歳さいで会社かいしゃを退職たいしょくし、65歳さいで完全かんぜんに仕事しごとから引退いんたいした。 — My grandmother left her company at 60, and fully retired from work at 65. (退職たいしょく = left that specific job; 引退いんたい = stopped working entirely, years later)

The pattern: 退職たいしょく marks leaving a job. 引退いんたい marks the end of working (or playing, performing) as a whole.

Beyond the basics

卒業そつぎょう: leaving an idol group on good terms (not the same as 引退いんたい)

When a member leaves an idol group on good terms and with notice, the word is 卒業そつぎょうします ("graduates"), not 脱退だったい ("withdraws"; sudden or on bad terms). 卒業そつぎょう means leaving the group — she may keep working as a solo singer or actress. If she leaves the entertainment industry altogether, the word is 引退いんたい (芸能界げいのうかいを引退いんたいします), often announced right after the 卒業そつぎょう.

○○は今年ことし、グループを卒業そつぎょうします。 — [Name] is graduating from the group this year. (idol industry standard phrasing)

This isn't limited to idols — it shows up for any long-running role someone is stepping out of gracefully, including in anime and variety shows, wherever the industry wants "leaving" to sound like an achievement rather than an ending.

辞やめる: the casual, everyday version

辞やめる (やめる, yameru) is the plain verb for quitting a job, a club or a post — and the same verb in hiragana, やめる, covers habits too — with none of the ceremony of 引退いんたい or the paperwork feel of 退職たいしょく.

バイトを辞やめた。 — I quit my part-time job. (casual, everyday) タバコをやめた。 — I quit smoking. (やめる is not limited to jobs; for habits it is usually written in hiragana or 止やめる)

辞やめる is what you'd actually say to a friend. 退職たいしょく and 引退いんたい are what you'd read in a news article or hear in a formal announcement about the same event.

定年ていねん — the word for mandatory retirement age

定年ていねん (ていねん, teinen) is the fixed retirement age set by a company or system — a specific number, not a personal decision.

定年ていねんは65歳さいです。 — The retirement age is 65. (a policy, not a choice) 定年退職ていねんたいしょく — retiring because you hit the mandatory age (a compound combining 定年ていねん + 退職たいしょく)

定年退職ていねんたいしょく is extremely common in Japanese working life, because lifetime employment at one company followed by a fixed retirement age used to be the default career shape. 引退いんたい, by contrast, is used for careers with no fixed age — sports, entertainment, craftsmanship — where the decision is entirely the person's own. After 定年退職ていねんたいしょく, finding a new 生いきがい is a common topic, and the real meaning of ikigai is closer to a hobby or a vegetable garden than to the four-circle career diagram you see online.

Why anime and drama plots love this vocabulary

A huge number of Japanese story arcs run on exactly this vocabulary: a veteran athlete deciding whether to 引退いんたい, a salaryman 退職たいしょく-ing to chase a dream, an idol's 卒業そつぎょう episode designed to make an entire fanbase cry. Once you can hear which word a scene is using, you know immediately what kind of ending the story is setting up — 退職たいしょく usually opens a new door, 引退いんたい usually closes one for good, and 卒業そつぎょう is usually framed as bittersweet rather than sad. A player's 現役げんえき (active-career) years often end with a televised 引退試合いんたいじあい, followed by a formal 引退いんたい発表はっぴょう that these same shows love to dramatize. For the everyday version of talking about your career before that point, see talking about your job in Japanese, and for the interview-room phrasing, see Japanese job interview phrases.

Common mistakes

  • Using 引退いんたい for an ordinary job change. 引退いんたいしたいです for "I want to change jobs" sounds like you're announcing the end of your entire working life. Use 退職たいしょく or the more casual 辞やめる.
  • Using 退職たいしょく for a sports career. 彼かれは引退いんたいした is correct for an athlete stepping away; 彼かれは退職たいしょくした sounds like he left a company, which misses the point if the story is about his sport.
  • Assuming 引退いんたい always means old age. Athletes and idols 引退いんたい in their 20s and 30s constantly. 引退いんたい is about ending an identity, not about being elderly.
  • Translating "graduate" literally instead of recognizing idol 卒業そつぎょう. If you hear 卒業そつぎょう attached to someone who isn't a student, in the context of a group or show, it almost certainly means they're leaving — not finishing school.

Which word should you use?

Word Reading Means Typical use
退職たいしょく たいしょく Leave a company job Any job change, formal/neutral
定年退職ていねんたいしょく ていねんたいしょく Retire at the mandatory age Standard salaried career
引退いんたい いんたい End a career/role for good Athletes, performers, craftspeople
卒業そつぎょう そつぎょう "Graduate" (leave a group on good terms) Idols, long-running show casts
辞やめる やめる Quit (anything, casual) Everyday speech

FAQ

What's the difference between "retire" and "retired" in Japanese? There isn't a separate word for the state — Japanese just uses the past tense of the same verb. 引退いんたいする is "to retire" (the action); 引退いんたいした or 引退いんたいしている is "retired" (the resulting state — "he is retired"). Same split applies to 退職たいしょくする/退職たいしょくした.

Is 引退いんたい only for athletes? No — it's used for any career or public role someone steps away from permanently: doctors, actors, musicians, craftspeople, politicians. The common thread is "this identity is over," not the specific profession.

Can you 退職たいしょく without a new job lined up? Yes. 退職たいしょく only describes leaving; it makes no claim about what comes next, unlike English "retire," which often implies you're done working forever.

Is 卒業そつぎょう disrespectful or a real euphemism people take seriously? It's a sincere, industry-standard euphemism — fans and the industry both use it earnestly, not as a joke. Calling a member's departure 卒業そつぎょう rather than 脱退だったい is the polite, expected framing for leaving a group on good terms. It does not replace 引退いんたい: that is for leaving showbiz altogether.

What's the most natural way to say "I'm going to retire" about yourself, casually? 仕事しごとを辞やめる (I'm quitting work) if you mean stepping away from work in general, casually. 引退いんたいする if you want the weight of "this is the end of my career" — save it for something that actually feels like an ending.

Does 定年ていねん always mean 65? No — 65 is common in Japan today but the number is set by each company or system and has changed over time. 定年ていねん refers to the concept of a fixed retirement age, not a specific universal number.

Is there a difference between 引退いんたい and 卒業そつぎょう in tone? Yes — 引退いんたい is neutral-to-serious and can sound final or even a little sad. 卒業そつぎょう is upbeat and forward-looking, and only means leaving the group.

Practice

Answers are hidden — try your own sentence first, then open. Questions 5 and 6 use the same person, once with each word, to show the difference in weight.

1. "I'm leaving the company next month." (neutral, no plans mentioned)

Show answer

来月らいげつ、会社かいしゃを退職たいしょくします。 — 退職たいしょく says nothing about what happens after.

2. "That athlete retired last year." (career-ending)

Show answer

あの選手せんしゅは去年きょねん引退いんたいした。 — 引退いんたい for the end of a sports career, not 退職たいしょく.

3. "I quit my part-time job." (casual, to a friend)

Show answer

バイトを辞やめた。 — 辞やめる is the everyday, unceremonious version.

4. "[Name] is graduating from the group this year." (idol industry phrasing)

Show answer

○○は今年ことし、グループを卒業そつぎょうします。 — 卒業そつぎょう is the standard word for leaving an idol group on good terms; 引退いんたい would mean she is leaving showbiz altogether.

5. "My grandmother left her company at 60." (just that job, the formal word for leaving a company)

Show answer

祖母そぼは60歳さいで会社かいしゃを退職たいしょくした。 — 退職たいしょく for the specific company exit. 会社かいしゃを辞やめた is the casual version of the same fact.

6. "She fully retired from work at 65." (the end of working life, years later)

Show answer

65歳さいで完全かんぜんに仕事しごとから引退いんたいした。 — 引退いんたい for the end of working entirely, a separate and later moment from question 5.

7. Fix this: 彼かれは野球選手やきゅうせんしゅを退職たいしょくした。

Show answer

彼かれは野球選手やきゅうせんしゅを引退いんたいした。 — a sports career ends with 引退いんたい, not 退職たいしょく, which is for company jobs.

8. "The retirement age is 65." (a policy, not a personal choice)

Show answer

定年ていねんは65歳さいです。 — 定年ていねん is the fixed age itself, separate from the act of retiring.

If you read idol or sports news in Japanese, 引退いんたい, 退職たいしょく and 卒業そつぎょう will keep turning up, so take a headline you could not parse to a trial lesson and work out which word the writer chose and why.

Vocabulary from this article

Tap the block to select all of it, then copy. In Anki: File → Import, note type Basic, separator Tab — the first column becomes the front, the second the back.

退職	たいしょく — leaving a company job
引退	いんたい — retiring from a career/role, for good
卒業	そつぎょう — "graduating" (idol/show euphemism for leaving)
辞める	やめる — to quit (anything, casual)
定年	ていねん — mandatory retirement age
定年退職	ていねんたいしょく — retiring at the mandatory age
再就職	さいしゅうしょく — getting a new job after leaving one
勤める	つとめる — to work for, to be employed at
選手	せんしゅ — athlete, player
現役	げんえき — active (in one's career/role)
引退試合	いんたいじあい — retirement match/game
引退発表	いんたいはっぴょう — retirement announcement

I'm Yuuki, a Japanese teacher based in Tokyo. I've taught on italki as a Top 1% teacher and watched over 1,500 anime. 引退いんたい versus 退職たいしょく is a favorite of mine to teach because it maps so cleanly onto plot structure — the moment a story uses one word instead of the other, you already know what kind of ending is coming.

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Sources: the author's own lessons and standard reference grammars.

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