And imho that new test format could help with that. Because with the JLPT, nobody forces you to learn speaking the language at all.
The new test does not have any speaking (nor writing) part yet, though. And may never have for all we know. So it’s basically the same problem.
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But let’s be honest. It’s not being done because of some newfound, widespread love of foreigners and diversity from Japanese society as a whole. It’s the tiny, first step of acknowledging an economic reality that they don’t really wish they were in.
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True. But at least they seem to be thinking of adding those parts later on.
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A language student’s end game shouldn’t be a grade on a test.
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Of course not. But tests can be a decent tool for immigration / employment gating.
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Right, but there are some tests that already include writing, like the Jtest. If you can write good Japanese, you can, most likely, sound it out too.
Looking around the interwebs, the major difference between the new test and other tests is in the vocabulary/situations it tests you on. While other tests are more oriented toward academic/business backgrounds, that one is supposedly aimed toward blue collar workers.
So, that’s indeed different, and necessary considering what the end goal is, but that’s either irrelevant for most of us, or a good thing (since you can focus your learning on stuff you actually need) if you aim for that visa.
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I see no reason to be concerned about it right now. Based on that article alone, there’s almost no information given about it. We just gotta wait and see for new information to be released. I’d be curious to hear about how things went after April, when we’ll have a better idea of what we’re dealing with.
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Very good summary 
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If you ‘have no time’ and you aim to live and work in Japan, then you have much better things to do than to waste time worrying about the format of future tests.
Also, if you plan on being the type of learner who gains N1 in 2 years, then you will also be the type of learner who need not stress about these things.
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We know virtually nothing about this apart from a couple articles on a test that is irrelevant to 99.99% of wanikani users. This is being blown out of proportion. Stop speculating.
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Senpai :0
I feel like I haven’t seen you in 1000000000000000000000000 years >:000
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Information has been slowly coming in about this since the law was passed last year. The law creates two new visa types, one for skilled labor and one for temporary unskilled labor. People applying for the unskilled labor visa will be required to take this test. So far, there’s nothing to indicate that anyone else will be affected by the changes.
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Perhaps not spreading misinformation may ease your suffering a bit.
If the existing JLPT was what you needed for the prosepctive job that you were aiming for then this would change nothing. The JLPT was never the only proficiency test for Japanese to begin with.
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But a guy online that supposedly knows a guy at the Japan Foundation said it’s gonna replace the JLPT. That’s the same as coming straight from an official representative of said foundation. 
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I would disagree, making sure that the foreigners have a sufficent level of communication skill to integrate into Japanese society is exactly what is needed. Furthermore, the reform is part of making staying in Japan long term more accessible to a bigger group of foreigners. Japan is already open to having a foreign workforce, if you have the right skills.
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Welcome to the internet, where HWFO is a fact of life. 
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That’s not usually how speaking tests work. You can try taking a Japanese speaking test on the phone now if you want. They give you prompts on various topics and you just have to fill the time.
Obviously they could do it differently, but your imagination of it seems overly strict.
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Interesting if true. But they only just put the new JLPT in place. So I’ll believe it when it’s officially announced.
I hear the new test will be taken under a truck at some port…
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Japan has huge labour shortages in certain areas as listed here. It needs to attract CHEAP labour from neighbouring countries to cover these shortages in rural areas. A lot of people opposed this move because they fear an influx of migrants (who can’t speak Japanese or have any experience of culture) from from economically poorer countries would be a strain on public services, dilute Japanese culture (lol) etc. This test was one such measure to appease people who opposed the bill. You can take this test if you want to get a visa doing really dirty work in inaka essentially as slave labour!
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