My name is Wazirudin bin Mahfot, and over the past five months in Japan I have had the opportunity to undertake an intensive learning journey in disaster management, combining academic instruction, field visits, policy discussions, and practical exposure to Japan’s disaster governance system. This period of study has been both professionally enriching and personally transformative, as it allowed me to engage directly with a country that has institutionalised learning from disasters through experience, transparency, and continuous improvement.
During my time in Japan, I was exposed to a wide range of disaster management themes, including emergency response coordination, search and rescue operations, disaster waste management, nuclear safety and accident governance, resilient information and communication systems, early warning technologies, and inter-agency coordination mechanisms. Site visits such as those to Fukushima Daiichi, emergency operation facilities, and technical briefings by Japanese experts provided a rare opportunity to move beyond theory and understand how policies and systems function under real disaster conditions. A recurring lesson throughout this experience was that effective disaster management is not defined solely by technology or procedures, but by institutional clarity, safety culture, preparedness, and the willingness to learn from failure.
One of the most significant outcomes of this learning period was the development of my capstone project, which focuses on applying lessons from Japan’s disaster management practices to a local and practical context. The capstone reflects my growing understanding that disaster risk reduction must be community-oriented, operationally realistic, and institutionally supported. It integrates insights gained from Japan’s emphasis on preparedness planning, decentralised response, and evidence-based decision-making, while also considering the governance, cultural, and resource realities of my home country.
Overall, the past five months in Japan have strengthened my professional perspective on disaster management, reinforcing the importance of humility in planning, realism in risk assessment, and continuous learning as the foundation of resilience. The knowledge and experiences gained during this period will directly inform my future work and contributions in the field of disaster management.