A revised test pattern was implemented in 2010 (it was originally scheduled to be implemented from December 2009). The revised test consists of five levels: N1, N2, N3, N4, and N5, with N1 being the highest level and N5 the easiest. No Test Content Specification will be published as it is discouraged to study from kanji and vocabulary lists.
Changes
Two changes in levels of tests were made: firstly, a new level was inserted between the old level 3 and level 2, and secondly, the content of the top level exam (old level 1) was changed to test slightly more advanced skills, though the passing level was not changed, possibly through equating of test scores.
The addition of the new N3 was been done to address the problem of the difficulty gap between level 3 to 2: in the past there have been requests for revisions to address the fact that examinees who have passed the Level 3 test often have trouble with passing the Level 2 test because of the large gap in those two levels. There was also a desire to measure abilities more advanced than those targeted by the current Level 1 test, hence the top level exam was modified.
The correspondence is as follows:
N1: slightly more advanced than the original level 1, but the same passing level
N2: the same as the original level 2
N3: in between the original level 2 and level 3
N4: the same as the original level 3
N5: the same as the original level 4
The revised test continues to test the same content categories as the original, but the first and third sections of the test have been combined into a single section.[18] Sections on oral and writing skills were not introduced. Further, a requirement to pass individual sections was added, rather than only achieving an overall score.
Scoring
Passing is based on scaled scores - raw scores are not directly used to determine passing, nor are they reported, except in rough form in the "Reference Information" section. Raw scores are converted to a standard scale, so that equivalent performance on tests from different years and different levels of difficulty yields the same scaled score. The scaled scores are reported, broken down by section, and these are the scores used to determine passing.
In addition, a "Reference Information" section is provided on the report card; this is purely informational - for the examinee's future studies - and is not used in determining if an examinee has passed. The grade given is based on the raw score, and is either A, B, or C, accordingly as the raw score was 67% or above, between 34% and 66%, or below 34%. This reference information is given for vocabulary, grammar, and reading on the N4 and N5, and for vocabulary and grammar (but not reading) on the N1, N2, and N3. In both cases, this breaks down the score on the "Language Knowledge" section into separate skills, but in neither case is performance on the listening section analyzed.
Pass marks
Passing the test requires both achieving an overall pass mark for the total points, and passing each section individually; these are based on the scaled scores. The sectional scores are to ensure that skills are not unbalanced - so one cannot pass by doing well on the written section but poorly on the listening section, for instance. The overall pass mark depends on the level and varies between 100/180 (55.55%) for the N1 and 80/180 (44.44%) for the N5. The pass marks for individual sections are all 19/60 = 312⁄3% - equivalently, 38/120 = 19/60 for the large section on the N4 and N5. Note that the sectional pass levels are below the overall pass level, at 312⁄3% instead of 44.44%-55.55%: one need not achieve the overall pass level on each section. These standards were adopted starting in July 2010, and do not vary from year to year, with the scaling instead varying.
Pass marks for individual sections
| N1 | 100 points | 19 points | 19 points | 19 points |
| N2 | 90 points | 19 points | 19 points | 19 points |
| N3 | 95 points | 19 points | 19 points | 19 points |
| N4 | 90 points | 38 points | 19 points | |
| N5 | 80 points | 38 points | 19 points | |
Test sections
| Language Knowledge (Vocabulary/Grammar)・Reading (110 min) |
Listening (60 min) |
170 min | |
| Language Knowledge (Vocabulary/Grammar)・Reading (105 min) |
Listening (50 min) |
155 min | |
| Language Knowledge (Vocabulary) (30 min) |
Language Knowledge (Grammar)・Reading (70 min) |
Listening (40 min) |
140 min |
| Language Knowledge (Vocabulary) (30 min) |
Language Knowledge (Grammar)・Reading (60 min) |
Listening (35 min) |
125 min |
| Language Knowledge (Vocabulary) (25 min) |
Language Knowledge (Grammar)・Reading (50 min) |
Listening (30 min) |
105 min |
Content
| ~2,000 | ~10,000 | Fluent | 900hrs |
| ~1,000 | ~6,000 | Advanced/Business | 600hrs |
| Upper-Intermediate | |||
| ~300 | ~1,500 | Lower-Intermediate/Conversational | |
| ~100 | ~800 | Basic | 150hrs |