A work email, a passage about learning to cook in Japan and a class timetable, with questions in Japanese, explanations and a timer.
Good JLPT N4 reading practice means longer everyday texts that give reasons, opinions and conditions: a work email, a passage about someone’s life in Japan and a class timetable. Below are three original passages in that format, with the questions in Japanese as on the test, instant answers that show where each answer sits in the text, and a furigana switch. At N4, reading shares one 55-minute section with grammar and is scored together with vocabulary and grammar.
Read each passage, then pick an answer. You get the explanation straight away. Start the timer if you want to practise at exam pace; the targets are our suggestion, not an official limit.
0 of 6 answered.
Suggested pace: 2:30 for reading and answering.
山田さん
来週の会議の時間が変わりました。火曜日の午後二時からでしたが、水曜日の午前十時からに なりました。場所は同じで、三階の会議室です。会議の前に、先週送った メールを読んでおいてください。
鈴木
Mr. Yamada: The time of next week’s meeting has changed. It was going to be Tuesday from 2 p.m., but it is now Wednesday from 10 a.m. The place is the same, the third-floor meeting room. Before the meeting, please read the email I sent last week. Suzuki
Suggested pace: 6:00 for reading and answering.
日本に来て、もうすぐ一年に なります。来たばかりの ころは、料理が ぜんぜん できなかったので、毎日 コンビニで お弁当を買っていました。でも、お金が かかるし、野菜も少ないので、自分で作ることに しました。
最初は簡単な みそしるから始めました。アパートの隣に住んでいる佐藤さんが、作り方を教えてくれました。佐藤さんは「上手に作らなくても いいから、毎日続けることが大切だ」と言っていました。
今は一週間に五回ぐらい料理を しています。失敗することも ありますが、前より元気に なりました。来月は国の母が遊びに来るので、母に日本の料理を作ってあげたいと思っています。
I have been in Japan for almost a year. When I had just arrived I could not cook at all, so I bought a bento at a convenience store every day. But it cost money and there were few vegetables, so I decided to cook for myself. I started with simple miso soup. Sato, who lives next door in my apartment building, taught me how to make it. Sato said, “You don’t have to make it well; what matters is doing it every day.” Now I cook about five times a week. Sometimes it goes wrong, but I feel healthier than before. Next month my mother is coming from my home country to visit, so I want to cook Japanese food for her.
Suggested pace: 4:00 for reading and answering.
さくらセンター 夏の教室
| 教室 | 曜日 | 時間 | お金（一か月） |
|---|---|---|---|
| 水泳 | 月・水 | 18:00～19:30 | 3,000円 |
| 料理 | 土 | 10:00～12:00 | 4,000円 |
| ギター | 金 | 19:00～20:30 | 3,000円 |
| ヨガ | 日 | 9:00～10:00 | 2,000円 |
・申し込みは七月十日までです。
・はじめての人は、一回目は お金が いりません。
・センターには駐車場が ありません。電車か バスで来てください。
Sakura Centre summer classes. Swimming: Monday and Wednesday, 18:00 to 19:30, 3,000 yen a month. Cooking: Saturday, 10:00 to 12:00, 4,000 yen. Guitar: Friday, 19:00 to 20:30, 3,000 yen. Yoga: Sunday, 9:00 to 10:00, 2,000 yen. Applications close on July 10. First-timers pay nothing for their first class. The centre has no car park; please come by train or bus.
The furigana setting “Hide on N4 kanji” uses a common unofficial N5 and N4 kanji list (the JLPT publishes none). A word keeps its reading unless every kanji in it is on the list. All passages are original, written by My Senpai in the style of the test.
The N4 test has three sections: Language Knowledge (Vocabulary) at 25 minutes, Language Knowledge (Grammar)・Reading at 55 minutes, and Listening at 35 minutes (times since December 2020). Reading comes after the grammar questions in the second section, so the time you spend on grammar is time you do not have for reading.
Scoring groups vocabulary, grammar and reading into one section worth 0 to 120 points; you need at least 38 there, at least 19 of the 60 listening points, and 90 of 180 overall to pass. The JLPT describes N4 reading as reading and understanding passages on familiar daily topics written in basic vocabulary and kanji.
| Task type | What you read | What the question asks |
|---|---|---|
| Short passage | An email, memo or notice at work, school or home | What someone has to do, or what changed |
| Mid-size passage | An essay-like text about an experience, with reasons and feelings | Why something happened, what someone said, what the writer thinks or plans |
| Information retrieval | A schedule, class list, guide or price table with notes | Which option meets two or more conditions |
Work emails and notices often report a change and then make a request. Separate what already happened (変わりました) from what the reader must do (～ておいてください, ～なければなりません).
Reasons hide behind から, ので and ～し, and turns behind でも. Quoted speech in 「…」と言っていました is someone else’s view, not the writer’s, and questions often test that difference.
N4 information tasks usually set two or three conditions (weekday evening, under a price, first-timers). Note them in the margin, then cross out rows that fail any one. Watch 以下 (or less, includes the number), ～まで (until, a deadline) and footnotes under the table.
| Days | What to do |
|---|---|
| Days 1 to 3 | One short passage a day: emails, notices and messages. Find who asks whom to do what, and by when. |
| Days 4 to 7 | One mid-size passage a day. Circle the connectors (から, ので, でも, ～し) and the quoted speech before you answer. |
| Days 8 to 11 | Information tasks with two conditions. Write the conditions down, then rule out rows one by one. |
| Days 12 to 14 | Timed sets at the suggested pace. Sort mistakes into vocabulary, grammar, connector and careless, and redo the passages you got wrong a day later. |
If the kanji slow you down, read with furigana on first and switch to hiding them on a second read. Our guide to what furigana is and when to stop relying on it explains the habit.
To compare reading apps side by side, see the best Japanese reading apps for beginners.
Still building up? The JLPT N5 reading practice has three easier passages. Next step: the JLPT N3 reading practice guide.
Reading shares the 55-minute Language Knowledge (Grammar)・Reading section with grammar. Vocabulary is a separate 25-minute section and listening takes 35 minutes, so the N4 test runs 115 minutes plus breaks.
As at N5, reading is scored together with vocabulary and grammar as one section worth 0 to 120 points, with a minimum of 38. Listening is worth 0 to 60 with a minimum of 19. The overall pass mark for N4 is 90 of 180.
The passages are longer, use more kanji and give reasons, opinions and quoted speech, so a question may ask why something happened or what someone said rather than where or when. Information tasks often set two conditions that both have to match.
There is no official list. Unofficial learner lists usually put N4 at roughly 300 kanji in total, the N5 set plus about 170 more. As at N5, learn kanji inside words: 会 is read differently in 会う and 会議.
Read one mid-size passage a day, mark the connectors (から, ので, でも, ～し) and the quoted speech, then answer without a translation. YoMoo has 65 N4 passages with furigana, one-tap meanings and saved-word review.
Last reviewed November 3, 2026. Section times, scoring and level descriptions: JLPT, Test sections and test times and jlpt.jp. Kanji counts come from unofficial learner lists; the JLPT has not published vocabulary or kanji lists since the current test began in 2010.
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