As the academic year draws to a close and a new cohort of young Japanese are dumped out the business end of the education system, so a new year's graduating class of young bands face a tough and forbidding new world.
In the past, the course of action would have been clear: Once you graduated, you became a member of society, and "society" in this case had a very narrow definition. Basically, you worked 16 hours a day for the rest of your life if you were a man, and devoted yourself obsessively to the raising of children if you were a woman.
Nowadays, the end of the school year in March is still the Waterloo of many bands, as members sacrifice their artistic dreams at the altar of social respectability and financial security, but in truth it's never been easier to continue a band while at the same time holding down a job. Bosses are more likely to be understanding of, or at least look the other way from, such extracurricular activities, and in society in general, playing in a band is seen as an acceptable, if a little eccentric and rather childish, hobby.