Kaisei High School Photo: Wikipedia/SANDO
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Tokyo schoolboy assumes other boy’s identity for 6 months; attends classes at top high school

33 Comments
By Casey Baseel, SoraNews24

Kaisei High School, located in Tokyo’s Nishi Nippori neighborhood, is a very respected academic institute. Its major claim to fame is that for 39 years and counting it has sent more students to the University of Tokyo, Japan’s most prestigious university, than any other high school in the country.

As such, Kaisei’s entrance exam is no joke, and sure enough, a recent investigation discovered that the entrance exam for one student at the school had actually been taken by someone else. OK, so some underqualified kid hired a ringer to take the test for him right? Nope, so put on your thinking cap as we go through the bizarre chain of events.

Kaisei held its entrance exam back on Feb 10, and one applicant, who we’ll call A-kun, showed up to take the test. A few days later Kaisei informed him that he’d passed, and on Feb 16 he attended an orientation session where he completed the paperwork to officially enroll in the school. On both days he had to show a photo ID to confirm his identity.

In an ordinary school year, an entrance ceremony would have been held in April to welcome new students to the school, and regular classes would have begun. However, with coronavirus infection numbers spiking from late February, the entrance ceremony (which student’s parents often attend) was cancelled, and classes for A-kun and his classmates began online. Kaisei resumed on-campus classes in late June, and the school year’s first semester wrapped up in late July.

Around this time, Kaisei’s administrators noticed something unusual: they still hadn’t received a copy of A-kun’s academic record from the junior high school he’d attended. Initially, they’d chalked this up do to a paperwork delay caused by the coronavirus situation, since the pandemic has been especially disruptive for schools. Still, half a year seems like plenty of time for someone to email a PDF or drop a hard copy in the mail, so Kaisei contacted A-kun’s junior high school…only to be told that they had indeed sent his records, but to a different high school where A-kun was attending classes.

In other words, A-kun didn’t have someone else take his entrance exam for him, but instead took the entrance exam, passed, and then had another boy, who we’ll call B-kun, attend his classes, both online and in-person, for an entire semester.

There’re all sorts of head-scratchers here. First, since B-kun was assuming A-kun’s identity, it wasn’t as though he was going to get a diploma he could use from Kaisei; Kaisei’s records would never have shown a student with B-kun’s name. And A-kun, despite being duplicitous enough to hatch the scheme, chose not to bask in the free time from a complete lack of academic responsibilities, but to diligently attend classes at a different high school, also under his real name. It’s not like he was planning to kick back for the next few years while B-kun was working towards a Kaisei diploma he could later pocket.

The mechanics of the plan are also a puzzler. Though almost all people in Japan attend high school, education is only compulsory until the end of junior high. That means B-kun not being enrolled, under his name, at any school wouldn’t have set off any alarms. Likewise, with A-kun being officially enrolled at Kaisei, ostensibly his parents were sending tuition payments the school’s way, thus avoiding any economic red flags.

Again, though, education in Japan is only mandatory through junior high. That means that students have to pay tuition for high schools, even public ones (similar to how even public universities charge tuition). That means that A-kun would have had to make sure that whatever school he was actually attending his classes at was also getting paid, unless a patient attitude similar to the one Kaisei displayed regarding his junior high records allowed him to fly under the tuition radar.

The big question, of course, is “Why?” The simplest possible explanation would seem to be that A-kun just really didn’t want to attend Kaisei, perhaps because of its rigorous curriculum, or maybe the fact that it’s an all-boys school, and that his taking the entrance exam was something he did in order to meet his parents’ expectations. If so, having someone else pretend to be him at Kaisei would get his parents off his back, and attending a high school he actually wanted to go to would allow him to still get a high school-level education which he could put to use in future academic or professional endeavors, regardless of whether or not he was ever planning to put “graduate of Kaisei High School” on his college or work applications.

Now that their secret is out, A-kun has been expelled from Kaisei, a school he never attended any classes at, and B-kun has been barred from entering the campus grounds, also a strange proclamation to have to specifically make for someone who isn’t enrolled at the school. As both are minors, several specific pieces of information, such as how the two knew each other, have not been publicly revealed, but speculation is likely to continue in anime, manga, and light novels drawing inspiration from the trope-friendly incident.

Source: The Sankei News via Yahoo! Japan News via Otakomu

Read more stories from SoraNews24.

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© SoraNews24

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

33 Comments
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And then some foreigners claim all Japanese lack initiative!

Love it.

12 ( +12 / -0 )

I'm looking forward to the Netflix anime that depicts this tale.

10 ( +10 / -0 )

 And A-kun, despite being duplicitous enough to hatch the scheme, chose not to bask in the free time from a complete lack of academic responsibilities, but to diligently attend classes at a different high school, also under his real name. It’s not like he was planning to kick back for the next few years while B-kun was working towards a Kaisei diploma he could later pocket.

Not gonna lie, this is amazing. Someone should realize that B-kun was committed enough to attend classes for A-kun, you can't someone to pull that kind of stuff so willingly. I wonder if some adult out there is working and staying in a job impersonating for someone else, it seems possible. I remember my mom telling me during her college days that she impersonated her friend during a swimming exam for that friend who swims like a rock to help her pass.

10 ( +10 / -0 )

Congratulations on your initiative, A-kun.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

@Bugle Boy of Company B

A: Anyone that had children in Japan or attended school knows that All Junior High schools have photo ID. When applying to take high school exams the applicant supplies a photo both application photo and Junior high school ID name and photo must match.

@JB

If what you say was true then all B-kun would have done is attend the exam then A-kun would have attended the High school and not sent B-kun while he attended another high school.

@quercetum

Read the article again, there is no benefit for B-kun as any diploma would have been in A-kun's name.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

What amazed me is that they pulled the act for six whole months.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Who's buying the rights to this story? Hopefully someone with a good production budget!

2 ( +2 / -0 )

There is no benefit for B-kun as any diploma would have been in A-kun's name.

Not really, but he can tell people he went to Kaisei, take some photos wearing the uniform, maybe fool a few future employers, girlfriends. I wonder if he also made a fake social media profile to convince his friends he was someone else. Or, maybe he talked to absolutely no one to help prevent the truth coming out. It kinda feels like B-Kun did this to make his parents believe he was going to Kaisei, or maybe his parents wanted to tell other parents he was going there. What would be the end-game though? They must have known their cover would eventually be blown.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Yeah, but happened to C-kun?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

I wonder whether their parents knew anything about this. And I wonder how well B-kun was doing at Kaisei.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

A: Anyone that had children in Japan or attended school knows that All Junior High schools have photo ID. 

Okay, you have kids. Good for you. A simple answer to my question will suffice.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

What kind of photo ID can a junior high school student get?

When they are accepted for the exam they have to supply a picture on the form, typically one of those "3 minute" ones from a photo booth, and they attach it to the exam and HS application.

Hence the "photo ID",

Poor translation probably, it is Sora

0 ( +0 / -0 )

So many questions , yet, none of the answers are in the article..

0 ( +1 / -1 )

So what is the problem here, he passed the entrance exam so therefore he should be admitted and be able to continue his schooling, who cares about his Jr. High records.

He is Smart and creative, Congratulations to him.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

He did all this to appease his parents. I guess both schools had their entrance exams on the same day and he didn't want to disappoint his parents.

At least both of them will become well off if they sell the rights to their story properly.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Not bad. Any guy would not be willing to go to a all-boy school and waste away the best years of their lives. Bet the parents are gonna be happy about this. But he earned my respect.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Cool story.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Is it possible they were brothers?

兄弟替え玉

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/0f2e369cab1a8fa330b82d1ea18febae6900d580

0 ( +0 / -0 )

This tale of a prestigious Japanese high school "trumped" with a twist would make a great movie and, even better, a best-selling book.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Not all that interesting to me.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

sounds like a really nice gesture from A-kun towards B-kun...perhaps B-kun really wanted to get a better education but he felt he would be unable to pass the exam and perhaps he did not have the economic means to afford such a school...in any case I feel that getting educated and acquiring knowledge can never be deemed as a crime...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@Kumagaijin

Not really, but he can tell people he went to Kaisei, take some photos wearing the uniform, maybe fool a few future employers

First flaw in this theory: employer ask for diploma so will any university and it would be in A-kun's name.

B-Kun did this to make his parents believe he was going to Kaisei, or maybe his parents wanted to tell other parents he was going there.

Second flaw: His parents would have to be in on it and paying the tuition that would be sent to the address if A-kun in A-kun's parents name. So then if so A-kun's parents would also have to be in on it.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Just be happy that both still attend schools...lol Do you know what is going on in other countries within that age group? Knife stabbings, gang shooting and drug dealing are the average norm there , not the exemption.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

It would seem A-kun's parents were paying fees for both schools, and presumably were OK with this. The only possible explanation (before I have my third coffee of the day) is that B-kun is a child from another planet with super powers that haven't yet matured. He was being hunted by evil aliens who feared that once his powers matured, he would be a threat to them. So his parents sent him to hide on earth until his powers mature, enlisting the help of A-kun's family.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

...perhaps B-kun really wanted to get a better education but he felt he would be unable to pass the exam and perhaps he did not have the economic means to afford such a school..

But his academic record is still going to show that he dropped out of school at 15, and still never be qualified to do anything more than fairly menial work.

He would do far better attending a school in his own name.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

A possible explanation is that B-kun is not so different looking than A-kun thus B-kun is the one which attended the entrance exam&co. Putting as hypothesis A-kun was not smart enough to pass the entrance exam and no more to manage successfully the 3 years of high school. And that B-kun was not rich enough to attend such a school perhaps not even any high school.

At the end A-kun would have had the diploma of some well know high school and B-kun would have money and knowledge to get high school diploma from evening school or the like for the people which could not attend high school. The scheme could be repeated for university, with B-kun getting a high class diploma for A-kun from one university them proceding to another big university in his own name to get its own diploma 4 years later with the tuition being paid by A-kun. Starting university late because you had to work since your family is poor is not such a big deal.

Thought in order to get the change A-kun obviously had to attend some school to gather the relevant knowledge and give the change when starting working.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@quercetum

Read the article again, there is no benefit for B-kun as any diploma would have been in A-kun's name.

There is also no benefit for A-kun's family unless they are paid for all of this. If they are then B-kun is actually an A-kun, somebody who got someone to take a test in place of him to increase his chances of passing.

I believe it was B-kun's idea to go to Kaisei. What's in it for A-kun? That he doesn't have to go to a school that his parents or guardians are making him to go to? And so A-kun's parents wire in the tuition to Kaisei and thinks that he's at Kaisei but the school A-kun ended up would surely had to have contacted A-kun's guardians.

Second flaw: His parents would have to be in on it and paying the tuition that would be sent to the address if A-kun in A-kun's parents name. So then if so A-kun's parents would also have to be in on it.

As you mentioned, the tuition bill would have gone to A-kun's guardians and A-kun himself is not going to be able to pay private tuition. The school A-kun ended going to - does anyone know which school it is? - would still contact the guardians of A-kun and there would be fees even if not a private school. A-kun's parents would have had to be in on the scheme. What would be the incentive for A-kun's parents or guardians?

The other way around, though sooner or later it would be found out, in B-kun's mind and his half-baked plan, he and his family thinks the gets to attend Kaisei.

Read the article again, there is no benefit for B-kun as any diploma would have been in A-kun's name

I agree but not in B-kun's mind, further evidence that he would not have been able to get in to Kaisei in the first place.

A-kun's parents or guardians who paid the private high school tuition has to have a cut in there somewhere. They may have wired in the tuition but they most likely would have received a sum of money from B-kun's side for the tuition plus something extra to get something out of this.

The answer is that the Japanese media is reporting that A-kun and B-kun are brothers. This solves the A-kun's parents or guardian's incentive. You have a brother who lives in shadow of his brother and parents who well motivated to have one help the other.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

In other words, A-kun didn’t have someone else take his entrance exam for him, but instead took the entrance exam, passed, and then had another boy, who we’ll call B-kun, attend his classes, both online and in-person, for an entire semester.

In other words your B-kun is your A-kun, who has somebody take the exam fir him and attended Kaisei. Round about reporting and not as clever as it sounds.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

What kind of photo ID can a junior high school student get?

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Who's buying the rights to this story? Hopefully someone with a good production budget!

Better not then call cash-strapped old cheat Donald!

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Both schools should swallow their stiff thongs and let this two young men continue their education, bet they both will do well.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Huh, I think it’s unlikely A-kun is the real mastermind behind this. Looks like A-kun is a rich kid not gifted enough to make a top school so his parents enlisted B-kun’s help in exchange for a fat check.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

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