The Japanese Program in the Department of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures administers the Japanese Language Proficiency Test every December since 2008 to help examinees certify their current Japanese proficiency levels.

This year, the exam will be administered in Kimpel Hall on Sunday, Dec. 1, and 133 examinees have registered to take the exam.

The JLPT has been offered by the Japan Foundation and Japan Educational Exchanges and Services since 1984 as a reliable means of certifying the Japanese proficiency of non-native speakers.

The JLPT is the only international certification examination authorized by the Japanese government, and it is currently administered in more than 80 countries and regions worldwide. Examinees take the JLPT at five different levels, with N1 the highest and N5 the lowest. JLPT certificates offer unique advantages ranging from admission to Japanese universities to take academic courses in Japanese to preferential treatment in work visa application to Japan.

The Japanese Program at the University of Arkansas is the ninth U.S. test site for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, and there are 18 JLPT test sites in the U.S. as of 2019.

Other JLPT test sites in the U.S. include Georgetown University, University of Washington, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and University of Michigan.