I am sure many of you guys who plans to take JLPT should have heard of it already, there will be changes to it in 2010, apparently instead of JLPT1-4, it will known as N1-5. A new level will be added which is N3. The new JLPT guidebook can be found here (in Japanese)
In general,
N1: A lil more difficult than the current JLPT1, but the passing cutoff rate will be about the same as the current JLPT1
N2: About the same difficulty as the current JLPT2.
N3: A level between the current JLPT2 and JLPT3 levels. (This is a newly created level.)
N4: About the same difficulty as the current JLPT3.
N5: About the same difficulty as the current JLPT4.
I guess I will be holding off my language studies till next year ^^
The man who started The Banzai! Effect and Anime Banzai! (discontinued), took an avid interest in blogging and also photography. Integrating his interests with the likes of Japanese pop culture, he starts out his path on the blogging world 
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The problem is not adding a level or not (I passed JPLT 3 last year and I’ve reached JLPT 2 level within a year, but well, if they find it’s necessary, there’s no harm)
What I fear the most is the change in philosophy. Appearently, the new JLPT will be more task-based than before, which is a stupid hippy fad that considers that learning a language means memorizing scripts, scenarios, of what people find language will be necessary for, rather than learning grammar and vocabulary (5000 words for JLPT 2. How do you make up for not learning 5000 words with just practicing scenarios and dialogues?)
For example, they consider it’s important to talk about holidays, so you will be given a script of what they consider a typical holiday-related conversation. I almost failed an English exam last year just because I hadn’t gone on holiday that year, regardless of my actual abilities.
This is what I fear the most. I think I’m goign to pass JLPT 2 this year, but I’m not sure what will happen from now on. So far I felt I was given a certificate because of my abilities. I studied a lot of Japanese, read a lot of Japanese, watched RAW anime, and I passed. I was given a multiple-choice question about, let’s say, grammar, and, regardless of whether I had gone on holiday or whether I like bungee jumping (appearently they consider bungee jumping to be an extremely useful topic since all English textbooks I had at highschool always had a unit about it), I passed if I deserved it.
But now? I just hope it’s not too bad. I just can say one thing. By learning languages the old-fashioned way (i.e. without tasks, scripts or scenarios, by memorizing vocabulary and gramar and practicing a lot and above all working very hard) I’ve managed to learn (At least to some extent) English, German, Japanese and Mandarin, but I see people struggling to even learn English with these new methods.
Well, I’ve taken a look at the guidebook and well, what I’ve seen doesn’t look very bad. I was fearing something much worse, because after almost failing just for not going on holiday and seeing what a (modern) German exam is like, I was really afraid I might not pass JLPT 1 next year not becuase of my abilities but because of random circumstances such as me not being very sociable.