How to Pass the IT Passport Exam as a Non-Native Japanese Speaker
A practical guide to preparing for Japan's IP certification exam when Japanese is not your first language.
What is the IT Passport (ITパスポート)?
The IT Passport — known in Japanese as ITパスポート試験 — is the entry-level IT certification issued by Japan’s Information-technology Promotion Agency (IPA). It covers three main areas:
- Strategy (ストラテジ系): Business strategy, legal, and corporate management
- Management (マネジメント系): Project management and IT service management
- Technology (テクノロジ系): Computer basics, networks, databases, and security
You need to score 600 points or above out of 1,000 (with sub-minimums in each section) to pass. The exam has 100 multiple-choice questions and lasts 120 minutes.
The Language Challenge
The exam is conducted entirely in Japanese. This means you face two challenges at once: understanding the IT concepts AND reading the Japanese question text quickly enough to finish in time.
The good news: many questions test vocabulary knowledge more than deep technical skill. If you know what terms like RPA, SLA, PoC, and DNS mean — and you can recognise their Japanese names — you can score well without being fluent.
Study Strategy
1. Learn the key vocabulary first
Before drilling questions, spend one or two weeks on the most common IT terms tested in the exam. Focus on:
- The Japanese term (e.g. 情報セキュリティ)
- The English equivalent (e.g. Information Security)
- A one-sentence definition
PrepIPA’s vocabulary dictionary is built specifically for this.
2. Practise with real past questions
IPA publicly releases past exam questions every year. Working through them trains you to recognise question patterns and eliminates surprises on exam day.
Set a goal of 20 questions per day. Review every wrong answer — the explanation is more valuable than the score.
3. Focus on Strategy first
Strategy questions (問1–35) reward vocabulary knowledge over technical depth. For non-native speakers, this is often the easiest section to improve quickly. Aim for 70%+ here before moving to Technology.
4. Technology — know the basics, not the depth
IP Technology questions are breadth-over-depth. You don’t need to write code or configure a network; you need to recognise what TCP, IP address, encryption, and database normalisation mean.
5. Time management
120 questions in 120 minutes = roughly 72 seconds per question. This sounds comfortable, but long reading passages in Japanese slow you down. Skip and return if a question takes more than 90 seconds.
Exam Day Tips
- The exam is computer-based at designated test centres throughout Japan
- You can sit the exam any day at any registered venue (no fixed dates)
- Results are available immediately after submission
- You can retake the exam after a 30-day waiting period
- Bring your photo ID and the reservation confirmation
Resources
- IPA official information
- PrepIPA IP Exam practice — real past questions with bilingual explanations
- PrepIPA Vocabulary — key IT terms for the IP exam