BJT (Business Japanese Test)

Japanese Language Resources
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Hello everyone!

I plan on taking the BJT (Business Japanese Test) next year and aiming for at least 450.

I was wondering if any of you have taken this test before and have any reccomendations for learning materials? Books, websites, etc.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you ★

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I can’t help, but I want to take all the tests someday lol. Good luck!

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@Leebo You’re going to run out of room to put all your certificates. :smile:

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I recently attended a job hunting and resume building seminar for foreigners and the lecturer told us that as westerners we didn’t necessarily need to have the N1 qualification if we’re looking for jobs in Japan. However, having this qualification, especially around the 450 mark, was a great asset and a lot more applicable in the workplace. It’s also nice that its point based and not pass-fail lol

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Yeah, I like those style of tests.

I’ve taken the J-Test, and I want to take its companion, the Business J-Test… (not to be confused with the Business Japanese Test you are talking about).

The two J-Tests do the same thing of assigning a score on a range and then giving certificates based on which segment you fall into.

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I took this test in October, and found it surprisingly hard. I got a 431 on it.

I didn’t study for it at all because I was in Japan for vacation and figured I’d take it while I’m there. They don’t offer it in Canada.

For me, the hardest part was the reading section. The questions have 30 second time limits, and at times you have to read full business emails / small paragraphs, and pull out the necessary information quite quickly. If I had to focus on anything before taking the test again it would be:

  1. Reading Speed and ability to cut through the BS greetings that gunk up half of Japanese business emails
  2. Actually study some of the most common business Japanese phrases whose meanings are too hard to guess from their literal Kanji etc.

I found listening to be easy, but I have spent a lot of time on immersion and listening/speaking are my strong suit vs. speed reading. Again, I wish I had known some business Japanese phrases as I had to guess some questions, but for the most part I knew what was happening and picking the right answer was not hard.

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Thank you for your response! I’ll focus on reading speed then because that’s definitely my weak point. I appreciate the advice! ★

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I didn’t even know there was such a thing! Thanks for sharing :smiley:
Would also be interested in some test prep advice.

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Just curious, anyone familiar with the industry specific test (of unknown name) to start next month for two new visa types sponsored by the The Foreign Ministry. Looks to be more labor-focused towards practicality rather than academic-focused JLPT. I think they are testing in SE Asia first.

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I haven’t heard much about it, except for people who seem to be scared that the JLPT will be affected or go away or something. I don’t think there’s any reason to actually believe that’s the case as of now. There are already tons of tests in the world other than the JLPT, and it’s not like the JLPT is currently used for getting visas and is being replaced or something.

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So I took the test again last Wednesday (Mar 20), about 5 months since I last took the test. In the mean-time, I passed N2 (100%) and have sloooowly begun to study for N1 which I’ll take in July.

Great news was that my score went up 80 points to 509/800 this time around. Unfortunately, still 20 points away from the J1 classification but it was a good confidence booster.

I tried to follow my own advice from my previous post and it helped for sure. Next time, I’ll focus on the following:

  • Study more business specific terms. To approach 100% on this test you’ll actually need to know terms for things like “net profit” etc. My goal will be to understand all the terms in the vocab glossary at the back of my practice test book.
  • In terms of actual test taking strategy, for section 2 (reading + listening) I found myself waiting for the audio to start before I began looking for information in the graphic displayed. Instead, next time I’ll be sure to at least read the title/headers etc. to get an idea of what the graphic is about as the audio starts up.
  • Continue to focus on reading speed; this time I had about 1 minute left before the reading section timed out. Much better than last time where I straight up guessed 3 questions. But having more time to focus on tougher questions will be valuable.

Hopefully this can help someone who is considering taking the test. Let me know if you have any other questions.

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Quite late to the party, but

The N1 gives 15 extra points toward qualifying for the “highly skilled” visa, and the N2 gives 10 points.
You need at least 70 points to qualify, so 15 points is pretty huge.

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Okay, it’s not used for the same purpose as this is being proposed. This new test is not a “highly skilled” level for visas, it’s a daily life level thing, and you don’t need to pass any level of the JLPT now to get that kind of non-skilled visa.

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Sure! The intent isn’t the same, and the JLPT isn’t officially part of the visa. (And the Japanese skills they ask from people are also different).
That being said, I know quite a few people who are just below the line in terms of getting the visa I mentioned, so it does feel like it’s a part of the application.
I don’t know if that makes sense to anyone else…

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The test is only for that visa and only people from those certain Asian countries can apply for that visa. Basically it’s for low wage labor, despite the name. There’s some controversies surrounding that. From my understanding the test is intended to included speaking and writing skills.

Thank you for sharing. This is good to know. I have seen Jlpt on job postings, so I assumed that was standard. Good to know there’s more to look into.

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I understand! Although my scenario is with a different country… If I didn’t have the top language proficiency level (I have to renew it every two years, too), I wouldn’t be able to have my visa :(.

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Does anyone have any suggested study materials they use for this, such as books or specific youtube series? I majored in Japanese in college and took a few business classes, so I still have my textbooks that I can review.

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