Mercari, 2 Others Ban Sale of Homework

August 30, 2018

Tokyo- Japan's education ministry said Wednesday that it has agreed with online flea market operator Mercari Inc. and two other firms to ban users from putting up for sale book reports and other completed works that may be used for submission to schools as homework.

The other two are cybermall company Rakuten Inc. which operates the Rakuma flea market, and Internet portal Yahoo Japan Corp. which runs the Yahoo! Auctions website.

The three companies accepted a request for cooperation by the ministry, which has regarded the sales of completed works for home assignments as problematic.

They have already prohibited users from offering services to do homework for fees on their flea market or auction sites.

Following the latest agreement, Mercari, Rakuten and Yahoo Japan will remove completed homework assignments from their sites if they are found to be put up for sale, they said.

"While putting up completed school assignments for online sales or auctions is not illegal, we want people to understand the importance of doing homework on their own," a ministry official said. Jiji Press