Japan's National Sign-Language Interpreter Exam (2026): Pass Rates, Content and Study Methods

Introduction

The National Unified Examination for Sign-Language Interpreters is the gateway that everyone aiming to become a sign-language interpreter in Japan must pass. Yet information about the exam is scattered across the web, and there is almost no material that pulls it together systematically.

In this article I have gathered everything a prospective candidate needs to know: from the structure of the exam and the latest pass-rate data to concrete study methods for the written test and the impact of the Sign Language Policy Promotion Act enacted in June 2025.

Pass rates have been trending downward in recent years, which makes an accurate grasp of the exam's latest developments more important than ever.

Overview of the National Exam

The National Unified Examination for Sign-Language Interpreters is written by the National Sign Language Training Center (a social welfare corporation) and administered by the deaf-related organizations of each prefecture and government-designated city. It is held simultaneously nationwide in early December each year, and is commonly abbreviated as the "national exam" (touitsu shiken).

Those who pass become "persons qualified to serve as sign-language interpreters" and can work as registered interpreters in their prefecture. Osaka Prefecture long used its own independent registration exam and did not participate in the national exam — but in FY2025, according to the training centre's annual report, the exam was administered by 52 bodies covering every prefecture.

Exam Dates & Schedule

Applications are made directly to the administering organization in each prefecture. Application methods vary by locality: some prefectures accept postal applications only, some require you to apply in person, and others support online forms. I recommend contacting your prefecture's administering organization early.

Exam Content (Written + Practical)

Written Exam (100 minutes)

The written exam is made up of two fields: "basic knowledge required for sign-language interpreting" and "Japanese language."

Basic knowledge (20 questions, multiple choice) — the legal framework of disability welfare, the basics of hearing disability, the philosophy and ethics of sign-language interpreting, the interpreter registration system, the fundamentals of social work, and more. Questions are drawn broadly from across the whole text.

Japanese language — pronunciation and accent; vocabulary (synonyms, homophones, idioms, four-character compounds); grammar (parts of speech, sentence structure); orthography (reading and writing kanji, kana usage, notation); and reading comprehension and summarizing. Accurate command of Japanese is indispensable to sign-language interpreting, so the Japanese-language section is not to be underestimated.

Practical Exam (Scenario Interpreting)

In front of a video camera, you interpret in a set scenario (a government service counter, a hospital, a school, and so on). Both listening interpretation and reading interpretation are assessed.

Trends in the Pass Rate

The national pass rate is published every year in the training centre's annual report. Reports up to FY2021 also carry an appendix table running back to 2001. Here are the last seven years:

FY2025's 8.31% is the only single-digit pass rate in the 25 years since the exam began in 2001; the previous low was 11.77% in FY2014. In the same year the candidate count reached a record 2,059, and — as far as the published reports show — the exam was held in every prefecture for the first time.

I have compiled all 25 years, with the exact location of every figure in the source documents, in a separate article.

The passing standard — the actual mark you need — is a separate matter and is not officially published. Roughly 70% on the written paper and 75% on the practical are the figures used in exam preparation, and you must clear both.

Behind the falling pass rate may lie a tightening of practical-exam grading, a shift in the candidate pool (more inexperienced candidates who have only just finished a training course), and a qualitative change in the questions that now demand up-to-date knowledge of laws such as the Act on the Accessibility of Information to Persons with Disabilities.

Prefecture-by-Prefecture Data

Applicants, candidates and passes for each prefecture and government-designated city are published in the annual report appendices up to FY2021, so a prefecture-level pass rate can be calculated from them.

The disparities are real. In FY2021, for instance, Saitama had 83 candidates and 25 passes and Tokyo had 129 candidates and 31 passes — while in some prefectures nobody passed at all that year. Differences in the scale of training courses and in how much contact candidates have with Deaf people are cited as the reasons.

Where nobody passes, it means no new sign-language interpreters are produced in that prefecture that year, making the assurance of information access — including in disasters — a serious challenge.

Note, however, that the reports published from FY2022 onward contain the main text only, with no appendix. FY2021 is the last year with prefecture-level data; the pass rates of the last four years cannot be broken down by prefecture from public sources.

All 21 years of prefecture-level data, FY2001–FY2021, are set out in a separate article.

List of Set Texts

The scope of the written exam follows the official texts below (FY2025 editions).

Errata for the texts are published on the National Sign Language Training Center's website.

How to Study for the Written Exam

Preparing for the Basic-Knowledge Section

Analysis of past papers shows that questions on "Introduction to Disability Welfare" and "The Mindset of the Sign-Language Interpreter" come up especially often, and the legal-framework topics—the Basic Act for Persons with Disabilities, the Act on Welfare of Physically Disabled Persons, the Comprehensive Support Act for Persons with Disabilities—are the most important themes, appearing every year.

The most efficient order of study is to first read through the entire text to get the big picture, then work through past papers to grasp the question patterns, and return to the text to dig deeper into anything you got wrong—repeating that cycle.

Preparing for the Japanese-Language Section

The Japanese-language section is one where "effort pays off," but neglect it and it becomes an unexpected trap. Focus in particular on these four areas:

• Idioms and four-character compounds — expressions such as gori-muchu (utterly at a loss), garyo-tensei (the finishing touch) and chorei-bokai (constantly changing orders) come up, including ones you rarely use day to day
• Honorifics — distinguishing respectful, humble and polite forms. Because sign-language interpreting requires switching honorific registers to fit the setting, this is an area that ties directly into the work
• Homophones — pairs like igai ("besides" / "unexpected") and taisho ("target" / "contrast" / "symmetry"). In interpreting you need the ability to catch the spoken word accurately and recall the right kanji
• Reading and writing kanji — the correct readings of specialist terms in welfare and medicine

The Sign Language Policy Promotion Act and Its Impact

On June 18, 2025, Japan's first law dedicated specifically to sign language—the "Act on the Promotion of Policies Concerning Sign Language" (the Sign Language Policy Promotion Act)—was passed unanimously at a plenary session of the House of Representatives and enacted, taking effect on June 25.

The law establishes at the national level, in legal terms, that sign language is a language and an important means of communication, and it designates September 23 as "Sign Language Day." The promotion of sign language and the securing of sign-language interpreters are set out as duties of the national and local governments.

In addition, November 2025 saw Japan host its first Deaflympics, in Tokyo, making it a year in which public interest in sign language rose to an unprecedented level.

These developments are affecting the national exam too. The recent rise in candidate numbers is thought to reflect this heightened public interest. Going forward, there are hopes for expanded training budgets and for a ripple effect reaching the remaining six prefectures that have yet to enact a sign-language ordinance.

"Registered Interpreter" vs. "Certified Interpreter"

According to official MHLW data, the number of registered certified sign-language interpreters nationwide is 4,375 (as of March 2026). The Sign Language Policy Promotion Act (in effect since June 2025) sets out the securing of sign-language interpreters as a duty of national and local governments, and the training and securing of interpreters has become a societal challenge.

Preparing for the Written Exam with an App

Shunsoku Master: Sign-Language Interpreter Exam (now on Google Play)

A study app focused on the written exam (basic knowledge and Japanese language) of the National Unified Examination for Sign-Language Interpreters. I spent 12 years teaching at a special-needs school for the Deaf, and wrote the practice questions to follow the scope the exam publishes.

717 multiple-choice questions (361 on terminology, 356 on Japanese), a 532-term glossary, 55 study stages, and 10 full mock papers. You can narrow practice down to a single field, and re-drill only the questions you got wrong.

Free access covers term stages 1-3, Japanese stages 1-3, set 1 of every field, mock exam 1, and the full 532-term glossary. A premium plan unlocks all stages and sets, all 10 mock exams, and random practice, and removes the ads. The questions are not past exam papers; they are practice questions written to match the published scope. The app is in Japanese only.

Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google LLC.

See the app page (in Japanese)

Conclusion