Foreign-Educated Bureaucrats Don't Want to Be Bureaucrats

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: NPA to pressure officials who take degrees and run
The government is fed up with young, bright bureaucrats who spend large amounts of taxpayers' money to study abroad but resign soon afterward...Under a 1966 system, bureaucrats who have worked for ministries or agencies for up to seven years are given opportunities to study at graduate schools and other educational institutions overseas for two years. The program is aimed at fostering officials who can deal with international affairs...As of October last year, 45 out of 506 bureaucrats who were dispatched under the study abroad program during the 1998-2002 period had resigned, according to the personnel authority...Some of the ministries and agencies have asked their former officials to voluntarily repay as "contributions" the expenses incurred for overseas study...But as bureaucrats who resign are not legally obliged to return the funds, most ignore requests.