The National Personnel Authority has decided to pursue a regulation requiring young career bureaucrats who study abroad at government expense to return the money if they quit within five years of returning home.

The move came after the personnel authority found that nearly 10 percent of the 576 young career bureaucrats who studied overseas from fiscal 1997 through 2002 fell into that category.

The authority is to submit on Tuesday a written opinion for the enactment of the law to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and heads of both houses of the Diet.

The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry plans to submit a bill on the subject to the Diet next year.

Bureaucrats who quit would be required to return tuition and expenses for living and traveling between Japan and the country in which they studied, officials said.

Bureaucrats being sent to graduate schools in Japan would also be subject to the regulation, the officials said.

According to a study by the personnel authority, between fiscal 1997 and 2002, 56 bureaucrats quit within five years of finishing their studies under the government's long-term overseas research program.

The program allows civil servants to study for two years at graduate schools in the U.S. or other countries.

The government disbursed about 13 million yen to each of the 56 for the program, but only about half of them returned the money, the officials said.

The personnel authority now requires bureaucrats to submit a nonbinding statement pledging to return the money if they quit while studying abroad or within five years of returning home.