Sri Lanka’s Cabinet has approved a proposal to enter into a cooperation agreement with Japan to send skilled and semi-skilled workers to the East Asian country under Tokyo’s new Employment Programme for Skill Development, government spokesperson Minister Nalinda Jayatissa said.
“Japan has decided to introduce a new programme called the ‘Employment Programme for Skill Development’ with a more transparent labour-centric and sustainable labour mobility framework, effective from 2027-04-01,” Jayatissa told reporters after Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting.
“Under this, relevant provisions have been made to provide higher protection to workers, create a clearer career path and provide the opportunity to transfer to specific skilled workers,” he said.
Japan operates several schemes to procure foreign labour for key sectors as it copes with a shrinking domestic workforce and a rapidly ageing population. The new programme is intended to replace the long-criticised Technical Intern Training Programme with a framework that gives workers stronger contractual protection and a more transparent pathway to becoming a “specified skilled worker.”
Sri Lanka and Japan signed labour-mobility agreements in 2017 and 2019 under which Sri Lankan workers are employed in Japan via the technical internship training programme and the skilled-worker programme. Tuesday’s Cabinet decision realigns the bilateral framework to Japan’s incoming 2027 regime and is intended to safeguard Sri Lankan workers’ position under the new system before it takes effect.
Japan has emerged as one of Sri Lanka’s higher-skilled migration corridors. Worker remittances from Japan have grown steadily since the original 2017 agreement, alongside flows from the Gulf and South Korea, the latter of which has also recently expanded its quota for seasonal Sri Lankan workers under the E-8 programme.
The 2027 timeline gives both governments roughly nine months to negotiate the implementing memorandum, settle worker fees and accreditation procedures, and align Sri Lanka’s Foreign Employment Bureau with Japan’s new Skill Development administrative architecture.
