Vietnamese-language driver’s license tests suspended in Japan following alleged cheating

Testing center believes photos of test questions have been leaked after finding images on examinees phone .

Along with sports gym locker rooms, hot springs, and airport security lines, driver’s license testing centers are pretty touchy about people taking photographs inside of them.

Honestly, that seems like it should be common sense, but since common sense isn’t necessarily universal, the staff at the driver’s license testing center in Chiba City’s Mihama Ward inform all examinees to turn off their phones, and thus their embedded cameras, while in the testing area.

So a 29-year-old Vietnamese woman really stood out when, after handing in her written test for a standard-class motorcycle license on the morning of October 13, she took out her phone and took a picture of the blackboard at the front of the room .

A proctor quickly reminded her that this wasn’t allowed, and then asked to see her phone’s photo gallery, where he found not only the photo of the blackboard, but four more images that each contained multiple questions of the Vietnamese-language version of the driver’s test , with annotations such as check marks and Xs added to them.

When asked how she had obtained the questions, the woman claimed “I looked for questions using ChatGPT.” The driver’s license testing center, though, believes that the images were photos taken of prior license tests.

As this was the woman’s first time to take the test, their theory is that she had been supplied with questions from someone else who had taken the test on an earlier date . ▼ Even if you did ask AI to make some mock test questions for you, keeping them on a phone that you then whip out in the testing room seems like very unwise choice.

Driver’s license testing protocols for foreigners in Japan have been drawing increased scrutiny over the last few years .

In October of 2025, both the written and road tests for transferring a foreign-country driver’s license to a Japanese one were made much more difficult, resulting in passing rates falling from over 90 percent down to roughly 33 percent .

It’s not clear whether the woman at the Chiba testing center was attempting to transfer a Vietnamese license to a Japanese one, or if she was simply taking the same test given to Japanese citizens, but in either case there’s a newly acute awareness among Japan’s foreign resident population that obtaining a license isn’t easy, which in turn can make looking for ways to cheat a more tempting idea.

The woman’s test has no doubt been voided, but unfortunately the incident’s repercussions are going to affect others as well .