Following the severe economic crisis since 2022, Sri Lanka has continued to face an acute shortage of foreign currency, prompting the government to position the promotion of overseas employment as a key national policy. In 2019, Japan and Sri Lanka concluded a Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) on the Specified Skilled Worker (SSW) scheme, and qualification examinations have since been launched in sectors such as nursing care, food service, agriculture, construction, and airport ground handling. However, compared with neighboring and Southeast Asian countries, the number of Sri Lankan workers sent to Japan under the SSW scheme and the Technical Intern Training Program remains limited. Various challenges have been identified, including insufficient understanding of the scheme, inadequate training systems, and operational issues among licensed sending agencies.

In light of these circumstances, the Government of Sri Lanka requested Japan’s support for the “Project on Promoting Proper Labor Migration from Sri Lanka under the Specified Skilled Worker Scheme and Related Schemes.” JICA is considering the implementation of a technical cooperation project to ensure that the proper and smooth deployment of Sri Lankan workers to Japan becomes a sustainable initiative that strengthens bilateral trust and contributes to Sri Lanka’s socioeconomic development.

This Detailed Planning Survey examined a wide range of topics, including the operational status of the SSW scheme and other migration schemes, national overseas employment policies, the situation of vocational training institutions and Japanese language schools, as well as the current conditions and challenges of private sending agencies. The survey identified potential pilot sectors and partner institutions, analyzed scheme-level and operational bottlenecks, and formulated preliminary cooperation approaches for the future project.

The survey was conducted from November 2023 to January 2024, including an on-site mission carried out from late November to early December. Asia SEED participated as the “Technical Analysis Expert,” collecting and analyzing information from multiple perspectives—including Sri Lanka’s overseas labor migration policy, Japan-bound migration schemes and their performance, the status of pilot training institutions, quality of Japanese language education, and the operational processes and challenges of sending agencies—and contributed to the formulation of the prospective project.