KATHMANDU - Japan and Eastern European countries have emerged as new lucrative destinations for Nepalis seeking employment abroad in recent years, the Nepal Rastra Bank said on Tuesday.

Traditionally, neighboring India is the largest labor destination for Nepalis, and in the last two decades, Gulf nations and Malaysia have become key destinations for Nepali migrant workers.

The trend now appears to be shifting as the number of Nepalis going to Japan and some Eastern European countries for employment has been rising rapidly, the central bank said in a report.

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It noted that Nepalis receiving the government's permit to go to Japan for work nearly doubled to 15,247 during the first 10 months of the current 2024-25 fiscal year that began in mid-July 2024.

In 2019, Nepal and Japan signed a labor agreement, formally paving the way for "specified and skilled" workers to go to Japan.

"Japan needs foreign workers because of demography and we have a lot of aspiring workers who want to go there for relatively higher earnings compared to Gulf nations and Malaysia," Upendra Raj Poudel, director of Nepal's Department of Foreign Employment, told Xinhua.

Romania has emerged as another new lucrative destination for Nepali migrant workers, with 18,711 Nepalis permitted to go there during the first 10 months of 2024-25, up from 8,802 during the same period of last fiscal year, according to the bank.

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Nepal and Romania signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the fields of labor and social protection in October 2023.

Likewise, a sizable number of Nepalis have received approval to go to Cyprus and Malta for employment.

Nepal has also been sending a good number of workers to South Korea since 2008.

Currently, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait are the top four destinations for Nepali migrant workers, according to the central bank.