JLPT Exam Guide: Test Dates, Registration & Pass Marks

On 3 September 2026, the organiser of the JLPT in Japan posted a one-line notice: 申込受付もうしこみうけつけは終了しゅうりょうしました. Applications are closed. The published deadline for the December test was 5 pm on 7 September, four days later. Anyone who had planned to register on the last weekend found the door already shut.

It was not a glitch. The same site had warned that the number of applicants has grown so fast that booking enough exam rooms has become "extremely difficult", and that registration could end early when the rooms ran out. For the same reason, the 2026 tests in Japan were limited to people who hold a residence card. Around 1.9 million people applied for the JLPT worldwide in 2025, the most ever recorded.

So the first thing to know about this exam has nothing to do with kanji. The JLPT runs on fixed dates, with short registration windows that open months ahead, and the rules change depending on which country you sit it in. Most people who miss a session do not fail the test. They miss the form.

This guide covers the logistics end to end: the dates, how registration works, what it costs, how the paper is built, the passing score at every level, and when results arrive. Every date and number below comes from the official JLPT site or the official organiser for that country.

Table of Contents

• JLPT Test Dates
• What the JLPT Is, in One Minute
• How Registration Works
• How Much the JLPT Costs
• Which Level to Sit
• Exam Format: Sections and Timings
• JLPT Passing Score for Every Level
• When Results Come Out
• Test Day
• What a Pass Is Worth
• Other Japanese Tests Immigration Accepts
• If You Are Aiming at the Next Session

JLPT Test Dates

The JLPT has two fixed test days a year: the first Sunday of July and the first Sunday of December. Japan holds both. Outside Japan it depends on the city: some hold both, and many hold only one. The two days have not moved in years, so you can plan around them long before the official date is posted.

Next test dates (last checked 6 October 2026)

That catch matters more than the dates themselves. The United States, for example, holds the test in December only. If your city is a December-only site and you miss the August window, your next chance is a full year away, not six months. The official list of overseas test sites shows which sessions your city runs.

What the JLPT Is, in One Minute

The Japanese-Language Proficiency Test, 日本語能力試験にほんごのうりょくしけん, is the standard certificate of Japanese for non-native speakers. It is run by the Japan Foundation outside Japan and by Japan Educational Exchanges and Services (JEES) inside Japan.

It has five levels. N5 is the easiest and N1 the hardest. You choose your level when you register and you can enter at any level without having passed the ones below it.

Every question is multiple choice, answered on a mark sheet. There is no speaking section and no writing section. That shapes how you should read the certificate: it measures how well you understand Japanese, on the page and by ear, and says nothing about whether you can hold a conversation. It also has no age limit, and the certificate never expires, although a school or employer may ask for a recent one.

How Registration Works

There is no single worldwide registration site. How you apply depends on where you sit the exam.

In Japan

You apply online through MyJLPT, the account system on the JEES site. You can create the account at any time of year, and it is worth doing early, because the application window itself is short.

The window is about three weeks for July and two for December. In 2026 it ran from 17 March to 7 April, and from 24 August to 7 September.

Three rules catch people out in Japan:

• You need a residence card. Since 2026 the test in Japan has been for mid to long-term residents and special permanent residents. You enter your 在留ざいりゅうカード number when you apply, and you bring the original card on the day. Short-stay visitors cannot sit the test in Japan under this rule, so check the current notice if you were planning a trip around it.
• Registration can close before the deadline. It did in 2026. Apply in the first days of the window.
• Nothing can be changed afterwards. One level per session, no switching level or test site after the deadline, and no refunds for any reason.

Outside Japan

You apply through the local host institution for your city: a university, a Japan Foundation office, or a Japanese teachers' association. Each one sets its own method, its own deadline and its own fee. The official site gives the general pattern:

Those are rough guides. Real windows differ by city and some are only a few weeks long. In the United States, where the American Association of Teachers of Japanese runs the test at 20 sites, registration for the December test closes around the middle of September. The only reliable move is to find your host institution on the official list of overseas test sites, then check its page in early March for a July sitting or early August for a December one.

How Much the JLPT Costs

The fee is set country by country, so there is no single price.

In Japan and the US the fee is the same whether you sit N5 or N1. Whatever you pay, treat it as spent. In Japan the fee is not refunded for any reason once the application is accepted, and you should assume the same elsewhere unless your host institution says otherwise.

Which Level to Sit

The official descriptions of each level are short and worth reading closely, because they tell you what the examiners are actually checking.

Notice how the wording moves. N5 and N4 are about classroom Japanese. N3 is the bridge, where "slowly" disappears from the listening description. N2 and N1 are about real-world Japanese at real speed.

A practical test for choosing: open a sample paper for the level you are considering and read one passage with a timer running. If you are still deciding between the bottom two, our JLPT N5 study plan and JLPT N4 study plan lay out what each one asks for, and the N5 reading practice passages are written in exam format so you can feel the level before you pay for it. For a quick read on your grammar, ten minutes on the Japanese grammar quiz will tell you more than an hour of guessing.

Exam Format: Sections and Timings

The paper is split differently at the top and the bottom of the ladder. N1 and N2 are two long sittings. N3, N4 and N5 are three shorter ones.

In Japanese the three areas are 言語知識げんごちしき (language knowledge, meaning vocabulary and grammar), 読解どっかい (reading) and 聴解ちょうかい (listening). You will see those three words on the paper, on your voucher and on your score report, so learn them now.

Inside each section the question types repeat from year to year:

• Vocabulary. Kanji readings, choosing the right kanji for a word (at every level except N1), picking the word that fits a sentence, and paraphrases. From N4 upward there are also questions on how a word is used.
• Grammar. Choosing the right form for a blank, putting scrambled words in order, and filling blanks inside a longer text.
• Reading. Passages that get longer as the level rises, plus one question where you pull facts out of a notice, a timetable or an advert.
• Listening. Working out what someone should do next, catching the key point of a conversation, and quick-response questions where you choose the natural reply to a single line. N3, N4 and N5 add questions where you pick what to say in a pictured situation.

The scrambled-sentence questions are where grammar study pays off most directly, because you cannot guess them from vocabulary. Lists of the points each level expects are in our N5, N4 and N3 grammar lists.

JLPT Passing Score for Every Level

Every level is scored out of 180. To pass you have to clear two bars at once: an overall pass mark, and a minimum in each scoring section.

Two things in that table surprise people.

The first is that N4 and N5 have two scoring sections, not three. You sit three papers, but vocabulary, grammar and reading are added into one score out of 120. From N3 upward, reading is scored on its own, which means a weak reading score can no longer hide behind strong vocabulary.

The second is the sectional minimum. The official rule is blunt: if even one section is below its minimum, you fail, no matter how high your total is. A learner who scores 60 on vocabulary and grammar, 55 on reading and 18 on listening has 133 points, far above any pass mark, and still fails. The same applies if you miss a paper entirely. This is why every sensible plan puts listening in from the first week and does not leave it for the last month.

One more detail explains a lot of confusion on results day. The scores are scaled. Your result is not the number of questions you got right. It is calculated from the pattern of your answers, so that a 95 in July means the same thing as a 95 in December even though the papers differ. You cannot work out your score by counting correct answers against an unofficial answer key, and two people with the same number of correct answers can end up with different scores.

When Results Come Out

Results arrive in two steps: online first, then on paper.

In 2026, for example, the overseas online results for the July test opened at 10 am Japan time on 27 August and stayed up until 31 October. Online viewing is a window, not a permanent record, so take a screenshot.

Everyone receives a score report with the three section scores. If you pass, you also receive a Certificate of Proficiency. The words to look for are 合格ごうかく (pass) and 不合格ふごうかく (fail).

Since the December 2025 test, the score report for people who pass also shows a CEFR level for reference:

This is the first time a JLPT score has mattered beyond pass or fail. A bare pass at N2 now reads as B1, and a strong one as B2. The organisers add that the CEFR level only covers what the test measures, which is reading and listening. It does not claim anything about speaking or writing.

Test Day

A few weeks before the test you receive a test voucher, the 受験票じゅけんひょう, with your registration number, your room and your reporting time. Read it the day it arrives and not the night before.

In Japan the two halves of the ladder sit at different times of day. N1 and N2 start at 9:10 in the morning, with the room open from 8:30. N3, N4 and N5 start at 3:10 in the afternoon, with the room open from 2:30. Overseas sites set their own times. Most US sites check in around noon.

The rule on lateness is harsher than most people expect. If you arrive after the start, you cannot sit the first paper. You may sit the later ones, but they will not be scored, and you fail. There is no partial result and no way to resit one paper later. Plan the journey as if the trains will be late.

What to have with you:

• The test voucher.
• The ID your organiser asks for. In Japan that is the original residence card, not a copy.
• Pencils and an eraser for the mark sheet. Your voucher lists exactly what is allowed on the desk.
• Something to eat and drink in the breaks, especially for an afternoon session that runs into the evening.

Phones are the easiest way to throw the day away. The US rules say that phones and any device with a camera must be completely powered off from check-in until dismissal, and that a device found switched on means immediate disqualification. Silent mode is not off. Switch it off before you walk in.

What a Pass Is Worth

Whether the exam is worth the fee depends on what you need it for. Outside Japan it is mostly a line on a CV and a goal that keeps you studying. Inside Japan it is written into actual rules.

Under the points system, people who reach 70 points get preferential immigration treatment, so the 10 or 15 points from a JLPT pass can be the difference.

Notice the gap in that table. N3 unlocks very little on paper. Its value is as proof to yourself, and to an employer who has met you, that you have left the textbook stage. If you are sitting N3 for a specific visa or job requirement, check the requirement first, because the rules above start at N4 and then jump to N2.

It is also worth being honest about what the certificate does not show. Because nothing in the exam asks you to produce Japanese, it is possible to pass N2 and freeze when a shop assistant asks a simple question. If speaking is the reason you started, run it alongside your exam study and not after it. That is what Benkyou Mashou is for: short daily lessons, spoken conversation practice and flashcards that sit next to a study plan.

Other Japanese Tests Immigration Accepts

The JLPT is the best known certificate, but it is not the only one that Japanese immigration reads. Two others are worth knowing, mostly because neither is tied to two Sundays a year.

The JFT-Basic (Japan Foundation Test for Basic Japanese) was built for people coming to Japan to work. It is scored from 10 to 250, and 200 or more means A2, the level asked for under Specified Skilled Worker (i). Your result appears on the screen as soon as you finish. If you need a certificate for that visa and the next JLPT is months away, this is the faster route.

The BJT (Business Japanese Proficiency Test) measures how well you handle Japanese in a workplace: meetings, phone calls, documents. It gives a score and a band from J5 up to J1+, not a pass or fail. Under the points system for highly skilled professionals, a score of 480 or more earns the same 15 points as N1, and 400 or more the same 10 points as N2.

Which one to take comes down to who is asking. Schools and most employers outside Japan know the JLPT and little else. A visa category names the tests it accepts, so read the requirement before you book anything.

If You Are Aiming at the Next Session

Work backwards from the test date. The exam is in July or December, but the decision is made three to four months earlier, when the form opens.

If you are already registered, the last two months before the test are the time to stop adding new material and start sitting timed papers. The official practice workbooks, published in 2012 and 2018, are built from real past questions and are close to the true length of the test. Do at least one full paper in a single sitting, with a clock, before the day.

If you missed a window, do not write the year off. Pick the level now, put the next registration dates in your calendar, and use the extra months. Our guide to how long it takes to learn Japanese gives planning ranges for each level, so you can check whether the level you picked fits the time you have.

Remember that one-line notice from September 2026. The people it shut out had done the studying. They had left the form for the last weekend. The JLPT asks for two kinds of preparation, and the easier one is done with a calendar.