Perhaps Freddie Mercury or Mr Bean were really in charge of the Japanese car company.

Throughout the year, the Japanese media has been reporting on news and events from around the globe, with one particular story stealing the spotlight: the arrest of former Nissan Chief, and chairman of the three-way alliance between Renault SA, Nissan, and Mitsubishi Motors, Carlos Ghosn.

Arrested on 19 November, Ghosn was indicted on 10 December, charged with conspiring to lower reported compensation on Nissan’s securities by approximately US$44 million over a five-year period, and immediately re-arrested for failing to report deferred compensation over a three-year period.

Ghosn is currently being held in a detention centre in Tokyo and faces up to a decade in prison if found guilty of financial misconduct.

With his name and face being splashed across TV screens, newspapers and online new sites over the past month, people around the country would have no trouble picking the 64-year-old out of a lineup.

Or would they? That was the topic one examiner decided to address, by setting up this end-of-term exam question, shared on Twitter recently by test-taker @E2311000OM.

“Please answer the below questions on current topics.

1. Which one of the below photos fits the image of the former Nissan president who was arrested on 19 November on suspicion of under-reporting compensation over many years?”  

https://twitter.com/E2311000OM/status/1074890627744096256

Hmmmm…could the answer be Mr Bean or Freddie Mercury? Or perhaps it was the man on the left, 66-year-old Vahid Halilhodžić, Bosnian former professional footballer and current manager of Ligue 1 club Nantes?

Commenters on Twitter were keen to react.

“I love the wording of “fits the image”. Would it be correct to give your personal opinion?”
“The answer must be Mr Bean!”
“I wonder how Mr Bean, Halilhodžić, and Mercury would feel about this!”
“I had a similar test in Junior High, asking us to identify former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda against comedian Ryûhei Ueshima!”
“Whoever made this exam has a great sense of humour.”
“I’m jealous of you for having such a great teacher to give you this type of question!”

According to the person who posted the Tweet, they do have a great teacher, who probably got a kick out of creating the humorous lineup, and might’ve been hoping to hear some of the students laugh out loud during the exam.

Being the good students they were, though, nobody let out a lol, although @E2311000OM did say the person behind him stifled a laugh at the time.

Hopefully everyone was able to correctly identify Ghosn as the second image from the right, and breathe a sigh of relief that it wasn’t a question as difficult as those on the country’s notorious math exams!

Source, featured image: Twitter/@E2311000OM