I have met a good number of Japanese government workers who are here in DC studying for their Master’s on fat scholarships. It’s a great opportunity for them, but the taxpayers might want to take a look at what their money’s getting them.
It was found in a report by the National Personnel Agency released June 21 that of the 576 young career bureaucrats of the central government who studied abroad between 1997 and 2002, 56 of them, or about 10% of the total, quit their jobs within 5 years after returning.
The 56 were attached to 12 Ministries and Agencies, including the Board of Audit of Japan and the Cabinet Office. Among them, some even quit within 2 or 3 months after returning, taking offers from private firms that they received while studying abroad. Apart from their salaries, each person cost the government an average of 13 million yen, or a total of 730 million yen, for tuition, sojourn expenses and other costs. Only a few have returned the money. They have wasted taxpayers’ money while barely using the experiences for their jobs as public servants.
This actually came up in a management econ. class I took at Rits. We were discussing ways to keep people at their firms/agencies after the firm/agency invests in specialized training for their workers.
700 million yen is nothing — 7 million dollars. There are much bigger things to worry about than the occasional delinquent grad student, who are everywhere regardless of who’s paying the bill.
Totally. My reaction after reading that article was- wow, 90% retention rate!