Both Minna No Nihongo books are written entirely in Japanese. I had to buy book II as part of a Japanese course and so this was OK, but obviously, if you're setting out from scratch, this may present some difficulties.

The important thing about Minna No Nihongo is that it aligns itself closely with the JLPT levels (I am not certain if this is deliberate). Get Book I for Level 4 and Book II for Level 3. This will cover almost all of the grammar required. I'll do a spot-check analysis of how well the JLPT Levels are covered, later on.

In both books (I and II) there are 25 lessons and each lesson consists of between 2 and 4 grammatical patterns. The format of every lesson is the same.

• Sentence Pattern (文型) - Each sentence pattern is given in a sample sentence
• Example Sentences (例文) - Each sentence pattern is then used in a small 2-way dialogue, there may be 2 or 3 examples of each pattern here
• Conversation (会話) - A large, real-life conversation is given
• Practice A, B and C (練習) - The format of the grammar pattern is listed in a table which clarifies the rules involved, and 2 to 3 pages of various exercises are given, usually fill-in- the-blank or correct this sentence
• At various intervals, a short story is given. It could be about space travel, pokemon, or some Japanese place or tradition. But the grammar is meant to be within your grasp at that stage

Because it's all in Japanese, it won't be easy to use as a reference, but the Table of Contents (目次) does have a neat listing of sample sentences to illustrate each grammar pattern. I think this serves as a reference quite well, just takes a bit longer. There is also the option of getting the accompanying Translation and Grammatical Notes, (pictured below) which I did for Book II and I highly recommend it. It contains explanations of each grammar pattern, a vocabulary listing for each lesson, and translations of the main sentences in the Workbook. ( Apologies, I don't have a picture for the Grammar Notes Book 1, see the Text-only Amazon link below for this )

Given the format of the book, you will probably find that not being able to read Japanese fluently won't be a problem anyway. The book does not explain things in Japanese, it simply tries to convey the sentence pattern and examples to the learner on the face of it. From what you already know, you should be able to work out a lot of it, but without the grammatical notes book, you will probably need to have a lesson or discussion about the material with a teacher, before each lesson.

JLPT Level 4 Outlook

Just from a general perception of having studied Minna No Nihongo and having passed JLPT level 3 and 4, it was always quite clear to me, that there were very few grammar points in the past exams that weren't in this book. I never really doubted that. Still, I'd like to put this to the test. I'll concentrate on the Level 4 (Book 1) for this short analysis. The index at the front of the book contains sample sentences for every lesson (books 1 and 2).

I'll simply run through a few past exam sentences from 2004 and check whether they are covered by Minna.

• 「いもうとと　あそびました」- Yes, covered in [Chapter 5, No.3]
• 「うみへ　行きました」 - Yes, covered in [Chapter 5, No.1]
• 「どこにも　ありませんでした」- similar in style to Chapter 17, No.3, but I don't have the text to verify it contains this variation-on-the-theme

And, jumping ahead to question number 20 from the 2004 exam...
• 「せんたくを　してから、学校に　行きます」- Yes, covered in [Chapter 16, No.2]

To number 30...

• 「なくさないで　ください」- Yes, covered in [Chapter 17, No.1]
• 「どうして　早く　かえりましたか」- Yes, covered in [Chapter 9, No.3]

As a rough sample, we see there's only one case that it's not explicitly covered by a sample sentence. At that rate, and from my experience with Book 2 (Level 3) I would guess around 90% of JLPT level 4 is covered by Minna No Nihongo book 1. In some cases, as I have found with book 2, there may not be an entire lesson on a grammatical point, but if it's a minor variation on something else, you may well find it embedded with another lesson. Such that if you read Minna No Nihongo from beginning to end, there will likely be very few Level 4 (or Level 3 in the case of book 2) grammar that you won't have seen.

Minna No Nihongo is great if you have a teacher (it's often used this way) and not bad as a reference if you're prepared to look for a little longer. However, if it's explanations of grammar you want, you will at least need to purchase the accompanying book 'Translation and Grammatical Notes'. For the purposes of JLPT levels, it will cover most, if not almost all, of the required grammar. Even then, as I did, you will almost certainly want to get hold of additional books to vary your study and experiences - and vocabulary.