Quick answer: Write down the Japanese tasks the role involves before you look at any certificate. Then check three things in order: the candidate’s latest certificate and the year they took it, a short level test at shortlist stage, and a live task in Japanese run by a native speaker. A certificate tells you how someone reads and listens; the live task shows how they handle a client.
The first Japanese hire at a foreign startup rarely does one job. They answer the first support tickets, sit in on distributor calls, check the translated pricing page and flag the contract clause nobody else can read. Founders who don’t speak Japanese tend to lean on whatever certificate the CV lists, because it is the only number on the page. That gets you part of the way, and the rest of this guide covers where certificates stop and how to close the gap without a three-week hiring process.
Start with the tasks, not the level
A level means little until you know what the person will do in Japanese all day. List five or six concrete tasks: answering support tickets, a weekly call with a distributor in Osaka, reviewing a localised landing page, reading a contract before it goes to legal. Next to each, mark whether it is written or spoken, and whether it needs formal business Japanese (keigo).
Support roles that run on email and chat depend on reading and writing. Partnership and sales roles depend on listening, speaking and keigo on the phone. A candidate can be strong in one and average in the other, and the certificate on their CV may only measure half of what you need. Skip this step and you end up comparing candidates on a score that has little to do with the job.
What the common Japanese certificates tell you
The certificate on a CV tells you about the test, so it helps to know what each test measures. The JLPT is the one most candidates will show. It runs on paper twice a year, in July and December, across five levels from N5 to N1, and uses multiple-choice sections on vocabulary, grammar, reading and listening. A pass at N2 or N1 is a strong signal that someone can work through business documents; it was not built to show how they sound on a call.
| Test | What it measures | When candidates can take it | Good signal for |
| JLPT | Reading and listening, levels N5 to N1 | July and December | Document-heavy roles |
| Japanese Proficiency Test | Vocabulary, kanji, grammar, reading and listening; N5 to N1 with the matching CEFR level | Any day, online, about 30 minutes | Screening a shortlist on one scale |
| BJT | Japanese in business settings, score 0 to 800 | Most days, at test centres | Sales and client-facing roles |
| JFT-Basic | Basic Japanese for daily life and work in Japan | Monthly as a rule | Operations roles based in Japan |
| J.TEST | Practical Japanese for work and study, graded score | Six times a year in Japan | Comparing candidates on a finer scale |
Check the year on the certificate before you weigh the level. A candidate who passed N2 in 2018 and has worked in English since then may not read at N2 today, and the certificate has no way of telling you that.
Add a short level test at shortlist stage
Scheduled exams rarely fit a hiring timeline. If the role opens in September, the next JLPT session is in December and the results arrive weeks after that. For candidates without a recent certificate, or when you want the whole shortlist on one scale, ask each person to take an online Japanese proficiency test before the interview round.
The Japanese Proficiency Test from International Test Limited takes about 30 minutes and places the candidate at an N level from N5 to N1, with the matching CEFR level. Candidates receive a certificate right after checkout and can forward it to you the same day. If you ask candidates to take a test, offer to cover the cost; strong candidates with several offers drop out of processes that ask them to pay.
Use the result to sort the shortlist. A gap between N3 and N2 is worth acting on; two candidates who both land at N2 go through to the live task.
Run one live task in Japanese
This step catches most of the mismatches a certificate hides. Ask a native speaker to run a 20 minute session with each finalist: a contractor, an advisor or a partner company you trust will do. Pick one task that mirrors the job. For a support role, have the candidate reply to a real, anonymised customer email. For a sales role, role-play a call with a client who is unhappy about a late delivery. For a marketing role, hand them your Japanese landing page and ask what they would change.
Give the native speaker one question to answer afterwards: would you put this person on a call with our most important Japanese client next month, and why? A yes or no with one sentence of reasoning is easier to act on than a score out of five.
A simple screening sequence
The whole process fits into a normal hiring round if you run the steps in this order, and each step removes work from the next one.
- List the role’s Japanese tasks and mark each as written, spoken or keigo.
- Ask for the latest certificate and the year it was taken.
- Send a level test to shortlisted candidates without a recent result.
- Run the live task with a native speaker.
- Make the offer, and if the role includes language training, agree a retest date six months in.
Questions founders ask
A candidate has JLPT N1 but stumbles in the role-play. Which result do we trust? Trust the role-play for spoken work and the N1 for documents. People who learned mostly from textbooks often read far above the level they speak at. If the job is mostly calls, the role-play decides.
Does a remote support hire who only answers tickets need keigo? Written keigo, yes: polite forms are standard in Japanese customer support replies. Spoken keigo matters less for that role, so test it with the email task.
Can we compare Japanese and English candidates on the same scale? Roughly, through CEFR. Several Japanese tests now report a CEFR level next to their own result (JFT-Basic gives A1 and A2 judgements, and the Japanese Proficiency Test reports a CEFR level with each N level), which helps when your team already describes English requirements as B2 or C1.
One gap remains open: none of the common certificates tests spoken keigo in a business call. Until one does, budget for the live task. It costs 20 minutes of a native speaker’s time, which is cheap next to replacing your first hire in Japan six months after launch.
