Yes! It does take me a few moments encountering the same issue to “get it” aha but it’s getting clearer at least
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人には生きる目標がいる。
Why is it いる and not ある here? Does 生きる make 目標 into a living thing?
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I’d be willing to posit that it’s 要る.
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Pulling N1 eigo here 
I agree about it being 要る
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E1? Since the N stands for 日本語.
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Didn’t even think about that possibility, thanks! (and Redglare too)
Now what do we have kanji for if no one uses them tsss
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I always thought the N stood for New, since the N1-N5 levels replaced the old 1-4 version.
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冗談ですや～ん 
(I’ve never heard of the N standing for nihongo either for that matter)
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I’ve bamboozled myself I guess, I thought that was why it was N.
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Yeah, people used to have to say “I have JLPT 1” or whatever, or maybe they said “JLPT level 1”? and then the N# system replaced that.
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As you pointed out when asking the question, it’s not a living thing, so that narrows down the meaning without needing kanji to do it.
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Hah, I still get to say I have JLPT 2!
(I also have N1, though, so there’s not much call for me to say that…)
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I couldn’t find anything about it on the website, wikipedia says you’re both right, but couldn’t find the source for it so take with a grain of salt
2010年（平成22年）の改定から、N1 -N5 の5段階である。「N」は「Nihongo（日本語）」「New（新しい）」を表している。
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The N stands for NERD
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I don’t think it’s officially stated… it’s just that it doesn’t really make sense for it to be 日本語 since it was used to distinguish the new version and the old version was also 日本語.
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Found the source, bottom of page 1
Don’t think they actually say it anywhere else
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And on top of that, JLPT‘s „JL“ already stands for 日本語 …
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I guess the dual 日本語/new meaning lets them avoid the problem where “new” eventually becomes a useless label. (Notable examples of that include New College, Oxford, founded in 1379.)
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