A teenager suspected of cheating in last month's Common Test for University Admissions told the police she used the same method to cheat on last year's exam, according to investigation sources.
The 19-year-old university student reportedly said her alleged accomplice also helped her cheat last year and received payment.
The investigation by the Metropolitan Police Department is ongoing.
The MPD on Feb. 10 sent papers to prosecutors on the student, who lives in Osaka Prefecture, and her alleged accomplice, a 28-year-old system engineer, on charges of obstructing the operations of the National Center for University Entrance Examinations, the administrator of the test.
The teenager allegedly used her smartphone to capture video footage of questions during the World History B section of the test on Jan. 15, and shared the footage with the engineer.
Her alleged accomplice is accused of sending screenshots of the video to University of Tokyo students and others, some of whom unwittingly answered the questions for the test taker during the exam.
The teenager has not been arrested, she is voluntarily responding to questioning by the MPD. She reportedly told the police she paid the engineer to help her cheat in the same way last year.
"I desperately wanted to enter a famous university in Tokyo and become a television announcer in the future," she reportedly said.
According to investigation sources, the teenager met the engineer through a match-making service and they became friends after corresponding online. It is believed that the student approached the engineer about cooperating with the scam and promised to reward him.
The teenager entered a private university in the Kansai region after taking last year's entrance exams. It is not known if her acceptance was based on last year's common test result.
The test administrator announced on Feb. 10 that the student had been disqualified from this year's exam.
The teenager turned herself in to the police on Jan. 27 after the alleged scam was reported by the media.
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