JLPT N5 vs N4: What's the Difference?

18 June 2026

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If you’ve decided to take the JLPT, the first real question is which level to sign up for. For most beginners it comes down to N5 or N4, the two entry points to the test. They look similar on paper, and a lot of people pick the wrong one, either wasting a sitting on something far too easy or walking out of an exam they were never ready for.

Here’s the short version: N5 confirms you’ve got the absolute basics, and N4 confirms you can handle simple, everyday Japanese. Below I’ll break down exactly how they differ in kanji, vocabulary, grammar, the test itself, and how to choose. If you’re not sure where you stand yet, you can test your JLPT level in a few minutes before you read on.

What the JLPT levels actually mean

The JLPT (日本語能力試験, Nihongo Nōryoku Shiken) is run by the Japan Foundation and JEES, and has five levels. N5 is the easiest and N1 the hardest:

N5 and N4 are both “beginner” levels, which is why they get compared so often. The jump between them is real, but it’s manageable: N4 is essentially N5 plus the grammar and reading you need to actually start functioning in Japanese, rather than just recognising set phrases.

Kanji and vocabulary: roughly double

The clearest difference is sheer volume. The Japan Foundation stopped publishing official vocabulary and kanji lists back in 2010, so the numbers below are the widely used community estimates, not official counts. Still, they give you an honest sense of the gap.

So N4 roughly doubles what you need to recognise. N5 kanji are the everyday survival set: numbers (一, 二, 三), days and time (日, 月, 時), directions (上, 下, 中), and basics like 人, 大, 小, 本, 食, 飲. N4 adds another layer you meet constantly in real life: 自, 転, 車, 員, 院, 業, 員, 起, 寝, 答, 質, 問, and so on.

Grammar: the real difference

Vocabulary is just memorisation. Grammar is where N4 genuinely changes what you can do.

At N5, you’re working almost entirely in the polite ます/です style. You learn basic particles like は, が, を, に, で and へ (if particles still feel shaky, our guide to Japanese particles is a good refresher), simple present and past tense, i-adjectives and na-adjectives, and you meet the て-form for the first time. You can say things like:

私は学生です。— Watashi wa gakusei desu. — I am a student.

昨日、映画を見ました。— Kinō, eiga o mimashita. — I watched a movie yesterday.

At N4, the grammar starts to behave like real Japanese. The big additions are:

• Plain (casual) form — dictionary form, ない, and た forms, which everyday speech is actually built on.
• Potential form — 食べられる (taberareru, “can eat”), 話せる (hanaseru, “can speak”).
• Conditionals — たら and ば: 雨が降ったら、行きません。— Ame ga futtara, ikimasen. — If it rains, I won’t go.
• Giving and receiving — あげる, くれる, もらう, which trip up almost everyone at first.
• Transitive vs intransitive verb pairs — 開ける／開く, 始める／始まる.
• Volitional form — 行こう (ikō, “let’s go”).

That’s the heart of it. N5 lets you produce set sentences. N4 lets you bend the language: express ability, hypotheticals, intentions and favours. It’s the difference between reciting phrases and starting to actually talk.

Reading and listening

Both levels test the same three skill areas, but the difficulty climbs.

At N5, reading means short, highly controlled texts: a memo, a simple notice, a couple of sentences written mostly in kana with basic kanji. Listening is slow, clear, and built around classroom and daily-life situations (“where is the station?”, “what time is it?”).

At N4, reading passages get longer and cover familiar everyday topics, like a short diary entry, an email to a friend, or a simple announcement, written with noticeably more kanji. Listening speeds up toward a slow-but-natural pace, and you have to follow the thread of a short conversation rather than just catch a keyword.

The official “Can-do” descriptions sum it up well: N5 is about understanding typical expressions and sentences written in hiragana, katakana and basic kanji, and following short, slow conversations. N4 is about understanding everyday Japanese to a certain degree, reading passages on familiar topics, and following slowly spoken conversation.

How each test is structured and scored

Both N5 and N4 are split into the same parts: a vocabulary section, a grammar-and-reading section, and a listening section. Both are scored out of a total of 180 points, divided into two scoring sections:

To pass, you need two things at once: a high enough overall score, and at least the sectional minimum in each scoring section, so you can’t completely bomb the listening and make it up on reading.

The pass bar is higher for N4 (90 vs 80), which reflects the wider content you’re expected to control.

How much study time?

This depends enormously on whether you already know any kanji (learners from Chinese-character backgrounds move much faster) and how efficiently you study, so treat any number as a rough guide rather than a promise.

For learners with no kanji background, the commonly cited estimates from JLPT learner surveys are in the region of 350–450 hours of total study to reach N5, and roughly 550–1,000 hours to reach N4. The range for N4 is wide because that’s where grammar gets heavier and a lot of people slow down.

A practical rule of thumb: if you’ve finished a beginner textbook like Genki I or the first half of Minna no Nihongo, you’re usually in N5 territory. If you’ve worked through Genki II or the full Minna no Nihongo I & II, you’re approaching N4.

So which one should you take?

Take N5 if you’re still consolidating kana and your first 100 kanji, you mostly speak in ます/です form, and you want an early, motivating win to prove your foundation is solid.

Take N4 if you’re comfortable switching between polite and plain form, you can handle conditionals and the て-form without stopping to think, and you can read a short everyday passage without translating every word in your head.

One honest piece of advice from years of watching learners do this: there’s no prize for skipping N5, but there’s also no shame in sitting it. A clean N5 pass builds real momentum, and the exam experience itself, registering, pacing yourself, managing the listening section, is genuinely useful practice before the higher-stakes levels. If your goal is N4 within the year, sitting N5 first is rarely a waste.

Whichever you choose, the difference between them is now clear: N5 proves you’ve started, and N4 proves you can use Japanese for everyday life. Pick the one that matches where you honestly are today, build from there, and you’ll be looking at N3 before you know it. If you want a concrete next step, our JLPT N5 study guide lays out exactly how to prepare.