JLPT December 2026 Registration Dates by Country

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The JLPT December 2026 test date is Sunday 6 December 2026, everywhere the session is held. Registration is the part that is not global: each country's host institution opens and closes its own window, on its own schedule, with its own fee.

As of 30 July 2026, five have published their December windows — Brazil 3–30 August, Taiwan 17–31 August, Japan 24 August–7 September, South Korea 1–20 September, and the United States, where AATJ's national deadline is 16 September. For most other countries the window has not been published yet, and any page showing you exact dates for them today is guessing.

In this guide: the fixed test date · registration windows by country · countries with no window yet · why every country is different · applications can close early · what to have ready · confirmed fees · test centre changes · when results arrive · what the JLPT never measures

The test date is the same everywhere 6 December 2026

The December sitting of the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test falls on Sunday 6 December 2026, with all five levels (N5–N1) offered. That date is published on the official English site, jlpt.jp/e, and by JEES, which administers the test inside Japan.

Three consequences worth internalising before you plan anything:

• The July 2026 session is gone. It was held on Sunday 5 July 2026. December is the only remaining sitting this year — for most of the world, the next chance after 6 December is July 2027.
• There are no make-up dates. No alternate sittings, no rolling test windows, no late entry. If you miss registration, the exam itself is irrelevant to you.
• The date is global; the deadline is local. This is the single most misunderstood thing about the JLPT, and it is what the rest of this guide is about.

For the full-year picture including the July session, see our JLPT 2026 test dates guide.

JLPT December 2026 registration windows by country

Every window below is taken from the country's own host institution or national portal. As of 30 July 2026 nothing in this table has closed yet — the earliest close is Brazil on 30 August.

Four details in that table deserve to be pulled out, because they are the ones people get wrong:

• Japan's window was changed on 14 July 2026. It is now 24 August – 7 September. Any guide written before that date carries the old dates. We covered the change and what it means in Japan's new JLPT registration window.
• Korea has a second, online-only late window, 28 September – 4 October 2026, after the main 1–20 September one. It is the only late-entry mechanism in this table — do not assume your country has an equivalent.
• The US "deadline" is not the same as the US "opening". AATJ sets a national closing date of 16 September, but each individual test site posts its own opening from around mid-August. Popular sites can fill long before the national deadline.
• The US accommodations deadline is 4 September, twelve days before the general deadline. If you need any testing accommodation, that earlier date is your real deadline.

The countries that have not published a window yet

Ten major JLPT markets show "not yet published" above, and that is a checked statement rather than a gap in our research: as of 30 July 2026 the UK, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Nepal, Bangladesh, Thailand, Myanmar and mainland China had not announced their December 2026 registration dates.

Where to watch:

• United Kingdom — SOAS has indicated only that registration will open "around August". Check weekly from 1 August.
• India — two bodies split the country: MOSAI and JALTAP. Check whichever covers your city.
• Philippines — JFMO. For a sense of window length, its July 2026 window ran 17–31 March, roughly a fortnight. That is a pattern, not a prediction.
• Vietnam — the host in Ho Chi Minh City · Indonesia — jlptonline.or.id · Nepal — JALTAN · Bangladesh — JUAAB · Thailand — OJSAT · Myanmar — MAJA · China — NEEA.

A blunt warning about the rest of the web: several aggregators already display confident-looking December 2026 dates for exactly these countries, with no official source behind them. Bookmark your host institution's own page and check it twice a week through August.

Why every country registers differently

There is no single worldwide JLPT registration portal. The test is co-administered by the Japan Foundation and JEES, but the mechanics of signing up are delegated, and they fall into three broad patterns.

1. A national portal. Japan is the clearest example: you register through JEES, on its own system, with one national window and one national fee. Taiwan (LTTC), Korea and mainland China (NEEA) work similarly — one country, one site, one window.

2. A single national host association. In much of the world the JLPT is run by a Japanese-language teachers' association, a Japan Foundation office or a university department acting for the whole country — CBLJ in Brazil, MOSAI and JALTAP in India, JALTAN in Nepal, JUAAB in Bangladesh. Each sets its own window, fee, payment method (frequently a local bank transfer rather than a card) and capacity.

3. Staggered per-site registration under a national deadline. The United States is the one that surprises people: AATJ publishes a single national closing date, but individual test sites — universities, mostly — open registration separately from around mid-August. Two US cities can have different opening days and very different fill rates.

The practical rule: find your country in the official overseas test site list, then go to the host institution's own website. The official list tells you who runs your test; only the host tells you when.

Applications may close early even inside the window

This is the most useful sentence in this entire guide, and it comes straight from JEES: applications for the test in Japan may close early even inside the stated window (source).

The stated reason is capacity. JEES's own wording — 「近年、応募者数の急増により会場の確保が非常に困難になっております」 — translates as: in recent years, a sharp increase in applicants has made securing venues extremely difficult. Rising demand is the whole story, and it is not a Japan-only phenomenon.

What that means for you:

• A published closing date is a worst case, not a plan. Treat the opening date as your deadline.
• Have everything ready before day one. If your window opens on a Monday morning, that is when you should be at the keyboard, not when you start hunting for a passport photo.
• Overseas centres have the same physics even where nobody publishes a warning about it. A big-city venue holds a fixed number of desks. Popular centres routinely fill before their official deadline.

If you register in the first 48 hours of your window, none of this can hurt you. That is the entire mitigation.

What to have ready before your window opens

Exact requirements are set by your host institution, so check its page for specifics — but the items below are what registration systems usually ask for, and every one of them is faster to sort out in advance than at 9am on opening day.

• A digital photo that meets the spec. Passport-style, plain background, recent. Size, format and dimensions vary by country, so check yours rather than reusing an old file blindly.
• Your ID exactly as you will bring it on test day. Your registered name must match the document you present at the venue — if your passport spells your name differently from your student card, use the passport version.
• A working payment method. Cards are common; local bank transfer is common too, especially in South and Southeast Asia. Confirm what your host accepts before the window opens.
• Your previous test number, if you have one. Some systems link past sittings to your account.
• A decided level. Do not spend opening day agonising between N3 and N2. If you are unsure, read JLPT levels explained N5 to N1 now, or our N5 guide if you are starting out.
• Your accommodations request, if you need one. In the US this closes 4 September, ahead of general registration. Ask your host early.
• A calendar alert for your window's opening day, plus a backstop three days later.

The fees that are actually confirmed

There is no global JLPT price. Each host institution sets its own. These are the December 2026 fees we can confirm from official sources:

For every other country, the fee is set locally and we are not going to invent one — check your host institution's page. Note that some countries price by level (Taiwan and Brazil above) while others charge a flat fee for all five levels (Japan).

Test centre changes to know about for December

The December session has the widest coverage of the year, running in 60+ countries (official overseas list). A few specific changes for this session are worth knowing before you pick a city:

• Every test centre in the United States runs the JLPT in December only. There is no July JLPT anywhere in the US — 6 December 2026 is the only US date this year.
• Curitiba, Brazil is suspended for December 2026. It was a July-only site.
• King's College London is not listed for the December session. SOAS, Edinburgh and Leicester are.
• In Brazil, Londrina, Belém, Salvador and Manaus are December-only sites, so December is the one shot for candidates there.

Site availability changes from year to year and occasionally from session to session, so confirm your city on the official list before you make travel plans around it.

When December 2026 results arrive

There is no single global results portal, and this trips up people who need a certificate by a fixed date for a university application or a visa file.

If you sat the test in Japan: results appear on MyJLPT online in late January 2027, with paper score reports mailed in late February 2027 according to JEES. Note that the official jlpt.jp FAQ gives an earlier indication for paper reports, around early February — the two official sources do not perfectly agree, so plan for the later of the two.

If you sat the test overseas: you receive your results from your local host institution, generally around March 2027 (official overseas page); the FAQ says early March. MyJLPT is a Japan-domestic system and will not show your result.

One genuinely new thing on the score report: since the December 2025 session, JLPT score reports also show a CEFR reference level — but only for candidates who pass (official mapping):

If a deadline depends on your certificate, confirm the timeline with your host institution before you rely on it — not in February when it is too late to change anything.

The skill this entire calendar never measures

Every date in this guide buys you a seat at a test that measures three things: language knowledge (vocabulary and grammar), reading and listening. That is the complete list, at every level from N5 to N1.

You do not have to take our word for what is missing. The JLPT says it itself, on its own CEFR reference page: "The 'Language Knowledge (Vocabulary/Grammar),' 'Reading' and 'Listening' tested by the JLPT correspond to the 'Linguistic' and 'Reception' in the CEFR. It does not include skills such as 'Production (speaking and writing)' and 'Interaction' that are not tested by the JLPT." (jlpt.jp)

That is why the familiar pattern exists: someone passes N2, sends the certificate, gets the interview — and then freezes, because nothing in the preparation ever required producing a sentence in real time in front of a listening human. The certificate opens the door; the conversation happens out loud. We unpack the gap in full in The JLPT Doesn't Test Speaking.

The fix is not complicated, but it does have to be deliberate, and it fits neatly into the four months between registering and sitting: talk every day, out loud, and get corrected while you do it. That is exactly what SoraSpeak is for — unscripted conversation with AI Japanese teachers who reply in natural Japanese with subtitles and explain your grammar, particle and politeness mistakes in simple English, on a free daily tier. If your goal is a job in Japan rather than a certificate on a shelf, it is also worth knowing that the JFT-Basic test sits on a different track entirely.

The bottom line

Sunday 6 December 2026 is the date. Your deadline is not.

Five countries have published windows as of 30 July 2026 — Brazil 3–30 August, Taiwan 17–31 August, Japan 24 August–7 September, Korea 1–20 September, and the US closing 16 September. Ten major markets, the UK and India among them, have published nothing yet, and the only reliable move is to watch your host institution's own page from the start of August.

Then register on day one, because applications can close early. And spend the four months to December building the one skill the exam will never ask you for.

🗣️ The JLPT will never ask you to speak. Your interviewer will. Start building daily Japanese conversation habits now with SoraSpeak — AI teachers, corrections explained in English, free daily tier. Start your first session →

JLPT is a trademark of the Japan Foundation and Japan Educational Exchanges and Services (JEES). SoraSpeak is an independent Japanese speaking-practice app and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or certified by either organization. Registration windows and policies change and vary by country — always confirm with the official JLPT site or your local host institution before relying on any date here. SoraSpeak helps you improve spoken Japanese fluency; it is not an exam-preparation product.

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