N5 情報検索: Finding the Answer Without Reading Everything
情報検索（じょうほうけんさく, "information retrieval") is the most life-like question on the exam: a poster, class notice, timetable or menu of ~250 characters, and ONE question asking you to find the option that fits given conditions — the right day, the right price, the right time. It is also the only reading question where the winning move is NOT reading the whole text. This chapter teaches the scan-and-match method, the notice vocabulary that unlocks these documents, and a full worked example.
1. A Different Kind of Reading
Essays are read linearly; notices are read like maps. Real Japanese notices are built from labeled slots, and the exam mimics this faithfully. Your job: match the question's conditions against the right slots and ignore everything else. Reading every word of a timetable is how time dies — scanning is not cheating, it's the skill being tested.
2. Notice Vocabulary: The Slot Labels
These words ARE the document structure. Know them cold and any notice becomes a form with labeled fields:
| Label | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 日にち／日時 | ひにち／にちじ | date / date & time |
| 時間 | じかん | time (hours) |
| 場所 | ばしょ | place |
| 料金／お金 | りょうきん／おかね | fee, charge / money |
| 無料 | むりょう | free of charge (also タダ in speech) |
| 休み／休館日 | やすみ／きゅうかんび | closed day |
| 毎週／毎日 | まいしゅう／まいにち | every week / day |
| 午前／午後 | ごぜん／ごご | a.m. / p.m. |
| ～から／～まで | — | from ~ / until ~ |
| 大人／子ども | おとな／こども | adult / child |
| 電話（で） | でんわ | (apply) by phone |
| ～てください／～ないでください | — | rules: please do / don't |
| だれでも | — | anyone (may join) |
| ～円 | えん | yen (price slots) |
3. The Scan-and-Match Method
- Read the question first — carefully. It carries 2-3 conditions: e.g. "Lin wants to swim on Saturday morning and pay less than 500 yen. Which class can she take?" Underline each condition mentally: day / time / price.
- Scan the document for the labels that own those conditions (曜日 column, 時間 column, 料金 column). Go straight to them.
- Eliminate options one condition at a time. Check ALL options against condition 1, kill the failures, then condition 2, and so on. One-condition-at-a-time beats option-by-option — it's faster and traps can't survive it.
- Read the fine print last. The ※ note (or a bottom line starting with ただし "however") exists to eliminate the almost-right answer. If two options survive your conditions, the ※ decides.
4. Worked Example (Exam Simulation)
みどり市民プール 教室のお知らせ
教室 曜日 時間 料金 ① 子ども水泳 土曜日 午前１０時～１１時 ３００円 ② 大人水泳（初めての人） 土曜日 午前９時～１０時 ４００円 ③ 大人水泳（初めての人） 日曜日 午前９時～１０時 ４００円 ④ 大人水泳（上手な人） 土曜日 午後６時～７時 ６００円 ※ 子ども教室は１２さいまでです。
※ 初めての人の教室は、電話で申し込んでください。
Question: リンさん（２０さい）は、初めて水泳を習います。土曜日の午前中は時間があります。リンさんはどの教室がいいですか。そして、何をしなければなりませんか。
① ①の教室に行く ② ②の教室に電話で申し込む ③ ③の教室に電話で申し込む ④ ④の教室に行く
Walkthrough: Conditions: (a) adult beginner — 20 years old, first time; (b) Saturday morning. Condition sweep: ① is 子ども and Lin is 20 → the first ※ kills it. ③ is Sunday → day condition kills it. ④ is 上手な人 and evening → two kills. ② survives: adult beginner, Saturday 9-10 a.m., and the second ※ adds the required action — apply by phone. Answer ②. Notice the exam's signature: the ※ notes carried BOTH the elimination of ① and the "what must she do" half of the question. Fine print is never decoration.
5. The Standard Traps
- Age/eligibility fine print: 子ども＝１２さいまで, 大人＝middle-school and up — the ※ redefines words. Check it before trusting labels.
- 午前 vs 午後: the fastest fatal misread on the paper. 9:00 exists twice a day.
- Closed-day logic: 「毎週月曜日は休みです」— a Monday option can look perfect in every column and still be impossible.
- Price arithmetic: "adult 400円, child 300円 — how much for one adult and two children?" Expect one addition/multiplication step; write it down, don't juggle it.
- から／まで boundaries: ３時まで means it ends at 3:00 — arriving at 3:00 is too late. 申し込みは金曜日まで = Friday is the last day.
- Almost-matching rows: tables deliberately include a row differing in exactly one cell (like ② vs ③ above). One-condition-at-a-time elimination is built to catch this.
6. Practice Habit: Read the Real World
This question type is trained brilliantly by real life. Supermarket flyers, train timetables, gym schedules, app-store event notices — every one is a 情報検索 drill. Practice ritual: invent a person with two conditions ("Tuesday evening, under 1,000 yen") and find their answer in any real notice. Thirty seconds each, endlessly available, and it doubles as the most practical Japanese skill you will ever build for actually living in Japan.
Summary & Key Takeaways
- 情報検索 = 1 question on a ~250-character notice/timetable/flyer; the skill is scanning, not reading.
- Learn the slot labels: 日にち・時間・場所・料金・無料・休み・～から／～まで・大人／子ども・申し込み.
- Method: conditions from the question → scan to the owning slots → eliminate ALL options one condition at a time → let the ※ fine print break ties.
- Traps: 午前/午後, closed days, まで boundaries, redefined ages in ※, one-cell-different rows, and a single arithmetic step.
- Every real-world notice is free practice — this is the exam question you'll use at the station forever.