I wanted to inform people about, and also ask if anyone has tried taking the Nihongo Kentei? I imagine it would be a bit more comprehensive than a kanken and not test as much kanji knowledge.

*topic back from the dead*

I looked at some test prep stuff for it awhile ago and it seems to not go anywhere near as high as kanken. It's basically a harder version of JTEST (they are by the same company).

I thought the 日本語検定 exam was more a test of "proper japanese" rather than kanji.
So does that mean that it places a heavier focus on proper grammar usage.

Another test of kanji ability would seem unnecessary since the Kanji Kentei Shiken (漢字検定試験) covers that very well.

Website is http://www.nihongokentei.jp

It is a test of all aspects of Japanese (other than production I guess). What I meant by "not going as high as kanken" is that it doesn't reach a difficulty level similar to what kanken is at 1kyuu. There are probably some classical Japanese kentei out there somewhere though.