Cabin filter orientation - factory incorrect?

I've noticed on both my Leafs that the airflow orientation marker on the cabin air filter points towards the engine.

However all the particles that are trapped in a dirty filter are coming from the engine side.

Am I missing something? In any case I reversed the orientation in my vehicles to match the actual air flow direction.

There is no engine.

Which way is it pointing :?:

I am guessing that the orientation of the filter doesn't really matter from the standpoint of effectiveness of filtration as both sides of it look to me about the same. That being said, it IS important that a used filter ALWAYS be replaced (if only inspected after removal) using the originally installed orientation so that the dirty side is never placed next to the cooling evaporator coils (which get cold and wet from condensed water and can easily get clogged from air borne dust, etc).

Looking at a recently dealer replaced filter (part# B7891-1FC0A -- FILTER ASSY-AIR), it is marked on the side with the tab:

"FRONT ^ A" (where ^ represents a solid arrow)

so it is somewhat ambiguous as to whether "A" means airflow or "FRONT" means front of the Leaf or front of the cooling coils.

I try to replace the filter myself (so that I can vacuum out that area which the dealership might not do), so I have interpreted the ^ as pointing towards the front of the Leaf (so that the pulling tab is on the top when installed). But my last Leaf inspection time I let the dealership replace it and I noticed later that the filter was replaced with the arrow pointing towards the rear of the car, i.e. towards the cooling coils which is, in fact, the direction of the airflow.

I might add that instructions seem to come with that filter, but they are in Japanese and the illustrations don't make the installed filter orientation clear.

I know this is an old post, but I'm going to add my 2 cents. Just finished cleaning my coil with a feather duster and compressed air blower because the dealership did not seat the filter correctly, so it was not covering the radiator. I agree that the airflow is towards the rear of the vehicle. At this point I think the most important aspect is that you use a ruler to make sure the air filter reaches the end of the air box. It's easy for it to go up into the blower cavity instead of into the end of the airbox because of the angle and where the entrance to replace the filter is. Place ruler into cavity all the way to the end... then insert filter... then remove ruler. That prevents it from angling up into the blower cavity.