The foundation is backed by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT).

The levels are called grades (級, kyū): Eiken is a four-skills test, assessing a combination of receptive and productive skills.

[7] The Eiken Foundation offers grants for independent research projects conducted by educators.

[9] The finished list, published in 2006, is based on a survey of 20,000 Eiken certificate holders and is designed to investigate what "test takers believe they can accomplish in English in real-life language use situations.

"[10][11] More recent projects include an evaluation of the Eiken testing program carried out by international testing specialist James D. Brown[12] and a number of criterion-referenced validity studies investigating the relationship between the Eiken grades and other criterion measures of English ability.