Japan Mobile Phone Exam Cheat
Japan Mobile Phone Exam Cheat

Japan Mobile Phone Exam Cheat

Japan Mobile Phone Exam Cheat

The establishment here is in an up-roar over this story of University student using his phone to cheat on entry exams http://bit.ly/dVuPgJ

Mobile phone exam cheat shocks Japanese meritocracy

On Thursday night police arrested a 19-year-old student on suspicion of cheating on an entrance exam at Kyoto University by posting test questions online with his mobile phone. The student has admitted soliciting help online during entrance exams for four universities.

Using the name “aicezuki”, he posted mathematics and English questions on Yahoo! Japan’s chiebukuro (pearls of wisdom) bulletin board during exams at Kyoto and three other universities last month, reports said.

Answers appeared within minutes from more than 20 of the estimated 27 million people who use the site in Japan every month. Police found several answers on the site that closely matched those written on the student’s exam papers.

Given the speed with which he posted a complex maths problem, investigators believe he photographed the questions using a model of mobile phone that enables users to disable the shutter sound. [iPhone? — Eds]

As well as being disqualified from the exam process, he now faces charges of fraudulent obstruction of business, a crime punishable by up to three years in prison or a maximum fine of 500,000 yen (£3,700). If found guilty the teenager would be the first person in Japan to earn a criminal record for cheating.

With another round of university entrance exams later this month, education authorities are considering a ban on mobile phones at exam sites, a measure South Korea introduced in 2004 in response to widespread cheating.