Japan Disaster Relief Medical Team Has Arrived and Starts Operation

At midnight on 3rd December 2025, twenty-seven members of the Japan Disaster Relief (JDR) Medical Team arrived in Colombo. Adding the four members, who arrived earlier for the assessment of the situation, the JDR Medical Team now consists of thirty-one (31) professionals.

 Along with H.E. Akio ISOMATA, Ambassador of Japan to Sri Lanka, and Mr. Kenji KURONUMA, Chief Representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Sri Lanka Office, Hon. Prof. Chrishantha Abeysena, Minister of Science and Technology, who was until recently a senior professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Kelaniya and is an expert himself on public health and community medicine as well as Dr. Asela Gunawardena, Director General of Health Services of the Ministry of Health, received the team at the Bandaranaike International Airport.

The JDR Medical Team includes registered doctors and nurses, an official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and JICA personnel. The team will provide emergency medical services in Chilaw for two weeks. As the Chilaw District General Hospital, which has just resumed its OPD operation needs more time to resume its full operation, the JDR Team will conduct its activities in full coordination with the hospital and the Ministry of Health to respond swiftly and effectively to the medical needs of the local people.

Welcoming the arrival of the team, Ambassador ISOMATA said “the team’s arrival and its immediate deployment in the severely affected areas is a testament to the strong bond of friendship between Japan and Sri Lanka and shows an unwavering commitment of the Government and people of Japan to extending a helping hand to the people of Sri Lanka in need. Japan stands in solidarity with Sri Lanka when it is facing a time of great difficulty.”

Separately from this dispatch of the JDR Medical Team, emergency relief goods will be provided shortly through JICA to mitigate the difficulties of the affected people and to bring them comfort and hope.