Why Eiken® Postponed Its New Grades 6 and 7
— Japan's Next National Curriculum Is the Reason

1. What Was Announced

The announcement is simple in outline. Eiken® Grades 6 and 7, planned for introduction from the third 2026 test session, are postponed. A new launch date will be considered in light of the deliberations and announced on the association's website and by press release once decided. In addition, the already-published question formats and test fees will be reviewed when the launch is rescheduled.

In other words this is a postponement, not a cancellation — and the new date is currently undecided. In the release, the association apologizes to prospective examinees and to schools and cram schools that had been preparing.

2. What Were Eiken® Grades 6 and 7?

Eiken® has until now consisted of eight grades from Grade 5 up to Grade 1 (including Grade Pre-2 Plus). Grades 6 and 7 were to be new entry-level grades below Grade 5 — note that in Eiken®'s system, higher numbers mean easier levels. In its first bulletin of November 27, 2025, the association positioned them this way: Grade 6 for upper-elementary to early junior-high learners, Grade 7 for middle-elementary learners — basic-level grades meant to move up the starting line of "lifelong English proficiency development" and to properly measure achievement in the earliest stage of English learning.

Follow-up bulletins came steadily — partial disclosure of question formats on January 30, 2026, a fifth bulletin on April 3, 2026 — so preparations were well under way. Today's announcement puts that sequence on hold.

3. The Reason: Deliberations on the Next Curriculum

The release gives one clear reason. After noting that Eiken® has always aimed at question design "grounded in the view of English proficiency set out in the Courses of Study of each era," the association points to the deliberations in progress: in December 2024 the Minister of Education formally asked the Central Council for Education to deliberate the next national curriculum, and in September 2025 a Foreign Language Working Group was established under the Council's Curriculum Committee, deliberating concretely on the goals and content of foreign-language education, including at the elementary level — with the Council's formal report still to come.

According to the release, the working group's 13th meeting on June 18, 2026 discussed a draft summary of the debate so far, including a policy of nurturing interest and positive attitudes toward communication in foreign languages, and of presenting topics, activities, and teaching items in stages to ensure a smooth transition from elementary to junior high school. The association judged all of this to bear directly on the level-setting and question design of Grades 6 and 7, whose main audience is elementary schoolers, and explained its decision like this:

In short: wait and see how the next Courses of Study define elementary-school English, then redesign the grades. Precisely because these grades target middle and upper elementary schoolers, they cannot be separated from the conclusions of the ongoing deliberation on elementary foreign-language education.

4. What It Means for Families and Schools

The practical picture, within the bounds of what has been published:

• For now, the entry grade remains Grade 5 — with Grades 6 and 7 postponed, the conventional Eiken® still starts at Grade 5. For elementary schoolers, the long-standing Eiken® Jr. option is unchanged.
• Published question formats and fees will be reviewed — if you had begun preparing against the released Grade 6/7 formats, waiting for republication is the safe course. Fees will also be reset along with the new launch date.
• The new launch date is undecided — there is currently no official answer to "so when?" The association will announce it on its website and by press release; the association's official channels are the one place to check (I will also update this article as news comes in).

5. What This Postponement Tells Us

What makes this announcement interesting is how unmistakably it shows that proficiency tests are designed in lockstep with the national curriculum. Eiken® itself states that it has always aimed at questions grounded in the view of English proficiency in the Courses of Study of each era — and it has now paused the design of new grades until the next standards' view of English proficiency is settled. The Courses of Study are not a document confined to schools; they are also the blueprint for private-sector testing.

The same pattern recurs across the testing world. The 2027 overhaul of Japan's IT engineer examinations, which this site has covered, was likewise a case of institutional change upstream moving test design downstream. If you keep an eye on the institutional source — here, the Courses of Study — news like today's stops being a "sudden change" and becomes something you saw coming.

And that reality is already moving at the deliberation stage, before promulgation — exactly the phenomenon my upcoming "next Courses of Study watch" series is for. For how to read the current standards, see this article; the issues paper underlying the deliberations will be covered in the watch series.

6. Summary

This article reflects information published as of July 31, 2026. Details may change with future announcements, so please base any exam decisions on the association's latest official information. If you spot something or want more covered, I would love to hear from you via the contact form (the article name is filled in automatically).