I was going through N1 vocabulary and found it strange that Massage (in katakana) is an N1 vocabulary. Is that weird?
2 Likes
There’s actually quite a bit of katakana vocabulary in N1 curricula!
This is partly because the vocab is more niche compared to more common loanwords like ケーキ (how often do you talk about massages anyway? Unless you work as a masseur/se, not that often. Most katakana vocab at the advanced level is industry-specific, not broadly applicable),
partly because katakana words are not necessarily 1-to-1 mappings to their equivalents in their source languages ( スマート comes to mind),
and lastly because the majority of JLPT students are not native English speakers, and so these words are new to them even if they’re not new to us.
7 Likes
The fact that it’s a katakana loanword might make you think “this is easy vocabulary”, but this distracts from the fact that “massage” is simply not a word you need everyday. It feels right at home at N1 (or later) to me.
Basically, if we can forget the fact that it’s katakana for now, I agree with “massage” being in N1. And the Japanese word for “massage” simply happens to be マッサージ.
2 Likes
I would also advocate stopping looking at this from an anglocentric point of view. Majority of people on earth are not native English speakers and therefore there are many people who don’t find such katakana words intuitive, not to mention that some of them may not be intuitive even for native speakers.
10 Likes
I don’t really agree…there are plenty of words classified as N5 or N4 that we need much less in everyday life than some N1/N2 words (actually ive never understood these vocabulary classifications; they don’t seem to be based on difficulty, frequency, or themes, sooo…).
For example, 「真実」or 「頭痛」, which are classified as N1, seems far more important to me than 「産婦人科」, which is classified as N5. Or the fact that 「お湯が沸く」is N4 when 「熱湯」is N1, it’s maybe just me but sometimes those classifications feels weird (·•᷄_•᷅ )
2 Likes
OK, but that’s a discussion about whether those words are positioned correctly. If OP’s question was simply why マッサージ is in N1 and not whether it should be positioned before 産婦人科, my opinion is still that it’s positioned fine.
This is probably the best point. メス (scalpel) is in N1. This katakana loanword simply means knife in my primary language. Mega easy for me, but that doesn’t have any bearing on the fact that N1 is an understandable place for the Japanese word for scalpel.
3 Likes
Not everyone who learns Japanese can speak Englisch, so for some people the word might be pretty obscure. Also how often do you talk about Massages. The JLPT is also not without critique and imo pretty flawed (like 出来る「できる」 being an N4 word although it is extremely common and important).
Yeah, there are plenty of those words, two examples can definitely be something like テト and ソ連.
The first is cool, the second I don’t like and wouldn’t recommend.
No, I probably has spent to much time on r/languagelearningjerk in recent days, so now it’s sipping through me to this community…
I’m sorry guys… probably
By the way, in my language English loan word ノウハウ now means “innovation” so while doing N1 mock test I failed it.
1 Like
At least it’s nice to get an N1 word for “free”.
I’ve been thinking it would be nice to have a list of all English loanwords in N5-N1, so I could just plow through them all, but I haven’t had the time to make such a list…
Katakana words can be deceptively tricky to master as a writer or speaker of Japanese.
For example, knowing exactly where a words uses a ッ vs a ー, or when a word has chosen to use チ instead of ティ instead of シ.
I think studying the exact spelling and presence (or lack thereof) of katakana words should be taken seriously even by English speakers.
A native speaker can hear when you say レッシピ instead of レシピ.
1 Like
Even if English is your native language and a particular katakana word is a English loan word, it still might not be intuitive or easily recognizable! I don’t know how many times I was reading something and I came across a katakana word and I had no idea what it was, only to realize it was actually a fairly common English word.
Katakana-ization is very strange. Some words might have both a Japanese version and katakana loan word version which are translated by the same English word, but refer to somewhat different things. I believe 牛乳 vs ミルク is an example of this.
1 Like
Thanks for all the discussion. I can see where everyone is coming from in the replies. I still don’t really agree with it being in N1. Even if it wasn’t in katakana I still would think the word “massage” would be before N1 with the more specific massage terminology or types of massages in N1. Maybe something like 按摩 (anma) or 指圧 (shiatsu) that’s a more specific term within the generic word.
Keep in mind that N1 vocabulary only covers up to the most common 12,000 words. Most adult native speakers of a language know at least 30,000 words (including field-specific terminology), and most languages have at least 80,000 words in regular use, including Japanese.
With a quick search of some frequency lists 按摩 and 指圧 are in the top 35,000 - 40,000 class of words.
Of course the true apparent frequency of a word will vary from person to person.
1 Like
Kinda related but I always end up writing マッサージ when I want to write メッセージ so 
マッサージ… dangerous word
4 Likes
I think the most straightforward answer is that it appeared on the N1 exam but not the lower levels.
4 Likes
This is actually the only answer you need in this topic, lol.
N-lists are based on vocab that appeared on JLPT exams, not necessarily on frequency or usefulness in daily life.
(Even though the Japan Foundation propably does take this in account somewhat, but they do not publish actual word-lists for a reason.)
3 Likes
As someone who spent multiple conversations not being understood before realising it should be キャンプ and not カンプ… Yeah, that’s not something to neglect 🫠
3 Likes
I don’t think it’s just about understanding word lists. I think understanding who takes the test helps contextualize much more than vocab lists!
Here’s a breakdown from the latest stats on JLPT website for December 2025.
Stats: https://www.jlpt.jp/statistics/pdf/2025_2_3.pdf
Region: Test Takers
East Asia: 245,313
Southeast Asia: 153,213
South Asia: 44,330
TOTAL - Asia: ~450k
Oceania: 1,432
North America: 7,699
Central America: 1,876
South America: 4,117
West Europe: 8,227
East Europe: 5,829
Middle East: 968
North Africa: 678
Africa: 574
Non-Asian Total: ~30,000
Japan Total: 402,228
So you’re looking at a Asia as “Not English” and Non-Asia as “English” which is waaaaay oversimplifying, that’s a ~3/85 ratio.
So yeah, マッサージ isn’t that easy for the average test taker. Here’s what AI spit out for Asian languages for comparison. You’ll notice a few are also loan words and pretty close too!
East Asia
- Chinese (Mandarin): 按摩 (Ànmó)
- Korean: 마사지 (Masaji) or 안마 (Anma)
Southeast Asia
- Thai: นวด (Nuat)
- Vietnamese: Mát-xa or Tẩm quất
- Indonesian / Malay: Pijat (Indonesian) / Urut (Malay)
- Tagalog (Philippines): Masahe or Hilot (traditional healing massage)
- Khmer (Cambodia): ម៉ាស្សា (Masa)
- Burmese (Myanmar): နှိပ်နယ်ခြင်း (Hnaip nai chin)
South Asia
- Hindi: मालिश (Maalish)
- Bengali: মালিশ (Malish)
- Tamil: மசாஜ் (Masāj) or பிடித்துவிடுதல் (Pidithuviduthal)
- Telugu: మసాజ్ (Masāj)
I do 100% agree with this, and it might as well be the reason that they only incorporate it in higher level tests.
But the fact remains that the JLPT vocab decks are simply based on words that have appeared the most on JLPT tests and resources, and not on usefulness, frequency or (whether or not) a word is “easy”.
And the reason test makers put those words on harder tests but not easier tests is?