The Japan specified skilled worker test system asks for no degree, no qualification recognition and no prior career. What it asks for is two examinations, and they are the entire gate. There is no substitution, no exemption for experience and no points to make up a shortfall.
Which makes the practical question the only one worth answering: where do you sit them, and how do you book?
Check your field is open first
Before anything else, because this is a year of study you could waste. SSW (i) food service is suspended. New applications were paused on 13 April 2026 and the test was withdrawn both in Japan and overseas.
The reason is a cap rather than a policy reversal, which matters for how you plan: the number of SSW (i) food service residents is expected to exceed a ceiling of 50,000 set for the five years from FY2024 to FY2028. Still running:
- The SSW (ii) food service test.
- Food and beverage manufacturing at both tiers, which is where much kitchen and production experience fits.
- Accommodation, and the other operational fields.
Three further fields, linen supply, logistics warehouse and resource circulation, have tests in preparation, expected around 2027. They are announced rather than open, so there is nothing to sit yet. Full field list in our Specified Skilled Worker guide.
Where the tests are held
Skills tests run in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Pakistan, with additional countries for particular sectors.
If your country is on that list, you can qualify entirely from home and arrive already eligible, which is the structural advantage this route has over most of the world’s. Prometric administers the tests and publishes the schedules, though several sectors run through their own bodies: construction through JAC, industrial product manufacturing through JAIM, food services through OTAFF.
Schedules are per-sector and irregular rather than monthly, so plan backwards from a sitting. Examples from 2026 give the flavour: aquaculture ran from 16 April 2026 to 28 February 2027, fishing from 16 April to 30 June 2026, and manufacturing sat on 25 to 28 November 2026 with a further session expected around February 2027. Check your own sector rather than assuming a pattern.
The Japanese test, which is the easier half to plan
You need Japanese at either JFT-Basic or JLPT N4. JFT-Basic is usually the better choice for this purpose because it runs far more often:
| JFT-Basic | |
|---|---|
| How often | Six times a year |
| Where, in Japan | 120 cities across all 47 prefectures |
| Level needed | A2 or higher for Specified Skilled Worker applicants |
| Booking deadline | Until 23:59 Japan time three business days before the test, or four where the test falls on a Saturday, Sunday or Japanese public holiday |
For most people A2 is six months to a year of steady study. It is the single requirement standing between an experienced worker with no degree and a status that, at SSW (ii), renews indefinitely and permits family. On that arithmetic it is the best-value language study in global immigration.
How to register
The process is the same shape for both tests and it is worth doing carefully, because one detail causes most of the problems.
- Create a candidate account on the official site for your country. You need a working email address, your date of birth, and in some countries your passport number.
- Enter your full name exactly as it appears on your passport. This is the detail that causes trouble: a mismatch between your test certificate and your passport is a problem you will be untangling at the visa stage, not at the test centre.
- Log in with your Prometric ID and choose your test date, venue and start time.
- Pay the fee to confirm the reservation.
- Note the change deadline, which is 23:59 Japan time three business days before the test, or four for weekend and public holiday sittings.
The JFT-Basic registration process is set out here. Take the passport-name point seriously: it is free to get right now and expensive to fix later.
What to do
- Confirm your field is open and not capped or suspended.
- Check whether tests run in your country. If they do, this route is available to you on merit alone.
- Find the next sitting for your sector and work backwards from it. Schedules are irregular.
- Book JFT-Basic early and aim at A2. It runs six times a year, so there is a sitting to aim at.
- Match your name to your passport on every registration.
- Then find an employer. Passing makes you eligible, not employed, and a registered accepting organisation still has to hire you.
Related: the certificate of eligibility, which countries recruit from Asia and Japanese work visas in general. Browse shortage jobs with visa sponsorship on our board.
Last checked September 2026. Test schedules, locations and fees are set by the administering bodies and change between sittings, and one field is currently suspended. Confirm on the official site before booking travel or paying anything.
