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How far would you go to pass a test? At all points in our life, tests determine whether we succeed or fail with little remorse for how much grueling effort actually went into studying for it. One test in Japan is extremely taxing and foreigners and Japanese alike shudder at even the thought of taking it. We are talking about the Japanese driver’s license test and one first year high school student from Fukuoka who had failed the written portion 20 times, finally resorted to cheating in order to try and pass it.

For anyone who’s taken the driver’s license test in Japan, they know just how nitpicky it is. Foreigners have it easy when it comes to the written test, with questions like: “True or False? If you are going to drive a motor vehicle, it is important to know the rules of the road and to follow them at all times.” It’s always the actual driving test that fails us time and time again. It is not unheard of to have to retake the test five or six times because “you didn’t look around enough before making a turn” or “you didn’t move far enough to the left before making a left-hand turn.” It costs time, money and patience to finally get that license in your possession.

▼You must memorize the course.

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Image: AJET Driving Book

For Japanese citizens, the road test is just as finicky, but the written examination is surprisingly a real pain in the arse. It’s extremely specific and covers questions in a handbook that is about an inch thick. So, it’s not hard to believe that some people have a really difficult time passing the test. Take our “industrious” high school student in Fukuoka for example. Having already failed the written portion 20 times for a motorized bike license, he hatched a scheme to “ensure” his success this time around. He recruited an unemployed young 16-year-old to take the test for him. Like all the “best” criminals of our time, the high school student seemed to forget that the application submitted for taking the test included a picture.

▼Get ready, maggots!

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Image: Mizutani Masaru Staff

Police proctors became suspicious when they began checking the application pictures against the faces of the people taking the test. When the test supervisor approached the substitute tester with some questions, he handled it like a true criminal mastermind; he fled the scene.

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Image: Yamaha

The ol’ “test taker switcheroo” took place on August 14, and police were able to apprehend the test taker on the 28th and the high school student on the 29th. Evidence of their scheme, including forged documents, was submitted to the Fukuoka District Public Prosecutor’s Office on September 5, and the case was a slam dunk.

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Image: Hashimoto News

With this open and shut case, the moral of the story is plain to see. If you can’t pass a written test to get your motorized bike license by the 20th try, you probably won’t be able to concoct a clever enough plan to acquire it in an illegitimate way. The test is hard, but it’s definitely not so hard that it requires 20 times to take it.

Source: Yomiuri Online
Top Image: Flickr (Max Chu)