TOKYO: A teenager was referred to prosecutors on Thursday for allegedly using camera-equipped smart glasses to cheat on university entrance exams by taking photos of the questions and sharing them with outside observers, Kyodo news agency reported.
The 18-year-old, who sat exams for Tokyo’s prestigious Waseda University in February, had allegedly asked multiple people via X to be “online tutors” for him in advance and gave several thousand yen per person in electronic payments for their assistance during the exams, according to police.
“I regret my misconduct, which was worse than cheating,“ the man, who ended up not being admitted, was quoted as saying by the police, explaining that he had written down his answers based on the responses he received.
According to the university, those who provided the answers were unaware that the test questions were from actual entrance exams.
The man, a student of a senior high school in Tokyo at the time of the alleged offense, is suspected of obstructing the private university’s operations by taking images of exam papers and posting them on X with his smartphone on Feb 16 during the entrance test for the School of Creative Science and Engineering.
The smart glasses were able to send the images to his smartphone, which was hidden in a pocket of his pants, according to the police.
The university contacted the police after an official noticed a small camera in the frame of his glasses when he showed up for another test for the institution’s School of Commerce on Feb 21.
Waseda University said on its website on Thursday that it submitted a criminal complaint to the police out of concern that similar cheating could occur at other universities, in addition to the difficulties of getting to the bottom of the incident through an in-house investigation.
“We will respond harshly and seek to maintain fair and equitable environments of entrance tests,“ it said.
