MSDF officers cheat on exam using line app

August 29, 2017

TOKYO- Eleven officers of Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force have cheated on an internal exam by sharing its correct answers via free messaging app Line, according to informed sources.

At least about a dozen MSDF members were involved in the misconduct, the sources said.

A chief petty officer in his 50s in the MSDF's Escort Division 15, based in Mutsu, Aomori Prefecture, northeastern Japan, took photos of the answers using a smartphone and sent them to a former subordinate through Line. The answers were relayed to other officers.

The MSDF suspended the chief petty officer from duty for five days and cut the salaries of the 11 MSDF petty officers, ranked from the first to third classes, by one-15th for a month.

It did not disclose punishments for officers who only forwarded the answers.

The chief petty officer was in charge of handling the proficiency exam to evaluate the ability to read flag and light signals. The exam took place at bases across the country in November last year. Jiji Press