The National Personnel Authority said Wednesday that 1,228 candidates passed the nation's top civil service exam for fiscal 2000, 24 fewer than last year and the lowest number since the current exam system took effect in fiscal 1985.

For the foreign service exam, the last recruiting examination held independently by the Foreign Ministry, there were 21 successful candidates, including the highest number of women ever -- four -- the ministry said.

Starting in fiscal 2001, diplomat candidates will be recruited through the standardized, class-1 civil service examination for all top government career posts.

Among the successful general civil service candidates, 14.8 percent, or 182 of them, were women, the highest percentage since fiscal 1996, the authority said.

A total of 38,841 people applied to take the general civil service exam, down 1,691 from the previous year. Roughly one of every 32 candidates passed the exam, marking the second-highest rate of competition, following last year's results.

Of the successful candidates, 392 graduated from the University of Tokyo and 151 from Kyoto University -- both top-ranking state-run schools. Seventy-eight were from Waseda University and 54 from Keio University, both private institutions in Tokyo.

For the foreign service exam, 17 of the 21 successful candidates were from the University of Tokyo.

There are two main classes of civil service exams in Japan. Successful candidates of the class-1 exam enter a fast-track career structure that forms the cream of the Japanese bureaucracy.