Hello Minim Family,
Every June, a handful of our piano students sit their ABRSM exams, and every spring we have the same conversation with the families around them. It usually starts with "should she be doing grades by now?" and ends somewhere quite different, once we have explained what the exam actually contains and when the booking window closes.
The mechanics of ABRSM in Japan are genuinely confusing, and some of what is written online about them is out of date. This is the version we give our own families.
The short version. ABRSM (the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music) offers piano exams at Initial Grade and Grades 1 to 8, in two formats: Practical Grades, taken face-to-face, and Performance Grades, submitted as a video and bookable on any day of the year. In Japan, the 2026 schedule lists a single face-to-face session, held in June, with booking open from 24 March to 14 April. Fees are billed in US dollars, not yen, and range from $182 for the Initial Grade to $523 for Grade 8. Below: what is in the exam, which format suits which child, how booking actually works from Tokyo, what it costs, and the Grade 5 theory rule that catches families out every year.
What ABRSM is, and what the grades actually mean
ABRSM is the exam board of the Royal Schools of Music in the UK, and its graded music exams are among the most widely recognised in the world. For piano, it assesses nine levels: an Initial Grade, then Grades 1 through 8.
The grades are not school years, and they are not ages. A Grade 1 is an early milestone that a child might reach after a couple of years of steady lessons, and Grade 8 is a serious pre-conservatoire standard. You can start at any grade and skip grades entirely, which surprises most parents. There is no requirement to take Grade 1 before Grade 3.
What the grades are useful for is a shared vocabulary. A Grade 5 in Tokyo means the same thing as a Grade 5 in London or Kuala Lumpur, which matters for a family that may be in a different country in three years. It is also why music schools and universities recognise them, and why Grade 5 and above is the level usually asked about at that stage.
A grade is a checkpoint on a shared international scale, not a school year and not a verdict on your child.
Practical Grade or Performance Grade: the choice most families do not know they have
This is the single most useful thing in this article, and almost nobody mentions it.
ABRSM runs two separate routes to the same qualification. A Practical Grade is a face-to-face exam covering three pieces, scales and arpeggios, sight-reading and aural tests. A Performance Grade is a video recording of four pieces played as a continuous programme, with no scales, no sight-reading and no aural tests. Both are marked out of 150, and ABRSM describes them as equivalent in demand and value.
The difference in what they ask of a child is large.
| Practical Grade | Performance Grade | |
|---|---|---|
| Format | Face to face, at a venue | Video you record and upload |
| Repertoire | Three pieces from the syllabus lists | Four pieces as a continuous programme: three from the lists, one your own choice |
| Also tested | Scales and arpeggios (21 marks), sight-reading (21 marks), aural tests (18 marks) | Nothing else. All 150 marks are for the performance |
| When | In Japan, the 2026 schedule lists one session in June | Any day. You have 28 days from booking to upload |
| Suits | A child who benefits from the full technical scaffold | A child who plays well but freezes in an exam room, or a family whose year does not fit a June date |
Marks are the same in both: 100 to 119 is a Pass, 120 to 129 a Merit, and 130 to 150 a Distinction.
The own-choice piece in the Performance Grade is worth noticing. It is 30 of the 150 marks, and it can be something your child actually loves. For a child who has been grinding through a set list, that one slot changes the whole experience.
If your child plays beautifully at home and falls apart in front of a stranger, the Performance Grade is not a soft option. It is the correct option.
How booking actually works from Tokyo
Start here, because one detail has changed, and it is still wrong in a lot of places.
The address jp.abrsm.org no longer exists. We checked on 28 August 2026, and it does not resolve at all. ABRSM has consolidated onto its main site, and the Japan pages now live at abrsm.org/en-jp. Bookings go through an ABRSM account at portal.abrsm.org. If you follow an old link from a blog post or a teacher's handout and it fails, that is why.
A few things worth knowing before you sit down to book:
- The face-to-face window is short and early. For the June 2026 session, booking ran from 24 March to 14 April. That is roughly three weeks, ten weeks ahead of the exam, and it is the deadline families miss.
- Performance Grades have no window at all. You book when you are ready and then have 28 days to record and upload.
- Music Theory Grades 1 to 5 are online and also on demand, with the same 28-day window. Grades 6 to 8 are paper-based and scheduled: for 2026, the booking period is 1 to 14 September, and the Japan exam date is 31 October at 10:00.
- There is a local office. The ABRSM Representative Office for Japan is at the Kakehashi Foundation, Angels Garden 1F, 3-14-3 Nishiwaseda, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 169-0051, on +81 (0)3-6205-6915. If something about your entry is unusual, they are the people to ask rather than the London office.
- Expect a queue. The booking portal puts you in a virtual waiting room at busy times, which is normal and not a fault on your end.
The single most common expensive mistake is not failing an exam. It is missing an April booking deadline and waiting a year.
What ABRSM piano exams cost in Japan in 2026
Fees are set per grade and, in Japan, quoted in US dollars rather than yen. These are the published 2026 figures, read from ABRSM's exam dates and fees page on 28 August 2026. They change every year, so check them again before you book.
| Grade | Practical Grade | Performance Grade |
|---|---|---|
| Prep Test | $154 | Not applicable |
| Initial Grade | $182 | $144 |
| Grade 1 | $202 | $160 |
| Grade 2 | $255 | $192 |
| Grade 3 | $265 | $209 |
| Grade 4 | $312 | $226 |
| Grade 5 | $324 | $233 |
| Grade 6 | $398 | $297 |
| Grade 7 | $460 | $337 |
| Grade 8 | $523 | $401 |
Music Theory is billed separately: Grades 1 to 5 run from $106 to $155 online, and the paper-based Grades 6 to 8 are $183, $207 and $231.
Two things that are easy to miss. A digital certificate is included in the fee, and a paper certificate is an extra $5 if you want one for the wall. And because the transaction is international, your bank or card issuer may add its own handling charge and exchange rate on top. ABRSM says so explicitly on its own fees page. Budget for a little more than the sticker price, and note that the Performance Grade is the cheaper route at every single grade.
The exam fee is rarely the real cost. The real cost is the six to twelve months of preparation around it.
The Grade 5 Music Theory rule that catches families out
If your child is heading past Grade 5 on the piano, this one is not optional, and it is the rule we most often have to break to people.
Before booking a Practical or Performance Grade 6, 7 or 8, a candidate must already have passed Grade 5 or above in Music Theory. ABRSM also accepts Grade 5 in Practical Musicianship or a Jazz Practical Grade in its place. It is checked at booking, not at the exam, so a child can be entirely ready to play Grade 6 and still be unable to enter.
The good news is that Music Theory Grades 1 to 5 are online and available on demand, so it is not gated by a session date. The bad news is that families routinely discover the requirement in the same month they were hoping to book, and theory is not something you cram in a fortnight.
If there is any chance your child will go past Grade 5, start the theory conversation with their teacher a year early. It is the cheapest problem on this page to solve in advance and one of the most annoying to solve late.
Grade 5 theory is a booking requirement, not an exam-day one, and that is exactly why it bites.
When we suggest an exam, and when we do not
Our stance has not changed in years, and it is more conservative than most.
We offer an ABRSM grade when a parent asks for one, or when a child has advanced naturally to the point where the next grade is genuinely within reach. In practice, the first grade we usually put on the table is Grade 3, and that is typically after around five to seven years of consistent piano learning with us. That is later than many families expect. It is deliberate. A child who enters too early spends a year on four pieces and a scale book at the exact age when they should be discovering what they like playing.
What we have seen in the children who do go through it is real: preparing a full syllabus, memorising a large amount of material and holding it together in one sitting pushes a young player's standard up in a way ordinary lessons do not. Some of our former students have gone on to study music in Germany and Austria.
And we say no, or not yet, more often than we say yes. If a child is in a year with a school move, if practice has already become a fight at home, or if the only reason for entering is that a classmate is entering, an exam will make all three worse. Examinations are one route through learning an instrument, not the route. If practice is the actual problem rather than the standard, our 10-20-30 method is the better place to start, and our piece on group versus private lessons is worth reading if you are not sure the format is right yet.
An exam should confirm a standard your child already has. It should not be the thing that drags them to it.
What to ask your child's teacher before you enter
Worth asking any teacher, ours or otherwise, before you commit to a session.
- Which grade would you enter my child for, and why that one rather than the one below?
- Practical or Performance, for this particular child, and what makes you say so?
- How many months of preparation are you assuming, and what happens to normal lessons during them?
- Has my child got Grade 5 theory, and will they need it for the grade after this one?
- What would make you tell us to withdraw and enter the next session instead?
- If they get a Pass rather than a Merit, how will you talk to them about it?
FAQ
How much does an ABRSM piano exam cost in Japan?
For 2026, ABRSM's Japan fees are quoted in US dollars. Practical Grades run from $182 for the Initial Grade to $523 for Grade 8, with Grade 1 at $202 and Grade 5 at $324. Performance Grades are cheaper at every level, from $144 to $401. Music Theory is separate, from $106 for Grade 1 online to $231 for the paper-based Grade 8. A digital certificate is included, and a paper one costs $5. These figures were read from ABRSM's Japan site on 28 August 2026 and are reset each year.
When are ABRSM piano exams held in Japan?
The 2026 schedule lists one face-to-face session for Japan, in June, with a booking period that ran from 24 March to 14 April. Performance Grades, which are submitted as a video, can be booked on any day of the year, with 28 days from booking to upload. Online Music Theory at Grades 1 to 5 is likewise on demand. Paper-based Music Theory at Grades 6 to 8 has its own schedule: for 2026, booking is from 1 to 14 September, with a Japan exam date of 31 October.
Where do I register for ABRSM exams in Japan?
Through an ABRSM account at portal.abrsm.org, with the Japan-specific pages at abrsm.org/en-jp. The older address jp.abrsm.org no longer resolves, so any link you find pointing there will fail. Japan also has a local ABRSM representative office at the Kakehashi Foundation in Nishiwaseda, Shinjuku-ku, which is the right first call for anything unusual about an entry. In most cases, your child's teacher will either enter them or walk you through the booking.
What is the difference between a Practical Grade and a Performance Grade?
A Practical Grade is a face-to-face exam: three pieces, plus scales and arpeggios, sight-reading and aural tests, marked out of 150. A Performance Grade is a video recording of four pieces played as one continuous programme, three from the syllabus lists and one of your child's own choosing, with no scales, sight-reading or aural. It is also marked out of 150, and ABRSM treats the two as equivalent in demand and value. The Performance Grade is bookable year-round and costs less at every grade.
Does my child need Grade 5 theory to take Grade 6 piano?
Yes. ABRSM requires a pass at Grade 5 or above in Music Theory before you can book a Practical or Performance Grade 6, 7 or 8. Grade 5 in Practical Musicianship or a Jazz Practical Grade is accepted instead. The check happens at the point of booking, not on exam day, so a child can be technically ready and still be blocked from entering. Music Theory Grades 1 to 5 are taken online and available on demand, so this is straightforward to plan around if you start a year ahead.
At what age should a child start ABRSM exams?
There is no minimum age and no right answer. ABRSM grades are open to learners of any age, and readiness is about the standard of playing rather than the birthday. Our own practice is first to suggest a grade, usually Grade 3, when a child has been learning consistently for several years, and the standard is comfortably there. Entering early tends to buy pressure rather than progress. A child who is not doing grades is not behind, and plenty of strong players never sit one.
If you are weighing this up for your child
If you are trying to decide whether an exam is right for your child this year, that is a conversation worth having with a teacher who has prepared candidates before. Our Piano Academy runs private lessons at your home or at our studio, and our piano teachers hold ABRSM or Trinity College London qualifications. Families are matched to a teacher through a short questionnaire about goals and location, so you can say at the outset whether exams are something you want on the table or firmly off it. Piano also runs inside a number of partner schools, including Nishimachi International School, and you can see the full list on our Minim Afterschool page.
Love, all of us at Minim.
