Writing up a quick prelude to my trip to Tokyo for the ECU Leadership Program before getting on a plane Thursday night.
It’s been a bit of a blessing that the later parts to this year have been so chaotic that I haven’t had time to stress about it! I learnt a lot from my trip back in 2023, things that I’d do again and things I wouldn’t.
It’ll be interesting to stay at Waseda park in Shinjuku, much closer to the centre of town that where we stayed last time. One of the things I found most interesting about Tokyo is that even though there’s a population of ~14 million, it doesn’t feel big because the city is so distributed that it doesn’t have the same high-rises that other cities of a similar population might have… Definitely helps with the overwhelming nature of being in a different culture so far from home!
Aspirations & Expectations #
There are some aspirations and expectations I’ve kept in mind during the planning:
- Push myself as far outside my comfort zone as I can
- Embrace a new culture instead of pushing it away just because it’s different
- Engage with students from a different culture and seek to gain insight into their perspectives going through higher-ed and into industry
- Gain an understanding of cybersecurity issues from a country/culture that has had a different approach contrasting the western world
- Discuss what the Japanese perception of Australian & Western cyber security culture is
Representation #
It’s important to understand that by partaking in this program & travelling overseas, we’ll be representing both Edith Cowan and Australian culture. The goal of the Australian Governments New Colombo Plan is to assist students in developing indo-pacific capability and Asia Literacy (link). As part of this, I’ll need to carry myself professionally to ensure that I don’t sour the representation of Australian culture while overseas. This is always important, but there’s a greater weight when the image of the university relies on the way we conduct ourselves as students.
Global Issue #
In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in cyber-attacks from state-sponsored actors. The Australian Signals Directorate have stated in their annual threat report that we are continuing to face an increase in complex attacks from these highly funded sources. This concept is not new, and the world is waking up to the requirement to increase defences to protect private & public sector information from the likes of China, Russia, and North Korea.
Previously, the Japanese government has treated cyber defences as a by-product of building technologies, but we’re starting to see a shift. The Japanese government has expressed it’s interest in joining some of the global security forums, including AUKUS, the security partnership between Australia, UK, and the US (link). This shift in thinking requires that Japan increases all of it’s defences, it’s cyber defence is included as part of this. In May of this year, the Japanese Government passed the Active Cyber Defence Law, marking a shift in the countries cyber strategy (link).
I’d like to continue to investigate the international defence systems against state-sponsored actors as an internationally unified approach is required to properly thwart a complex, state-sponsored threat. An international defence will help keep Australian’s secure in our day-to-day lives, and I feel gaining an international perspective will assist in improving my understaing of ways that Australia can assist others, and improve our own international cyber defence capability.
Future Self #
My goal for post study-tour is to have embraced the change as completely as I can. I’d like to be able to walk away from the tour having having taken advantage of every oportunity that was given to us. I hope to have embraced the internships, even though I envision this being the most impactful & challenging component to the tour.
Some photo’s from my previous trip to Japan back in 2023, I’ll be sure to keep dropping things in these blog posts once I touch down in the country.
Getting to Japan #
I’ve been in Japan for a couple of days now and have spent a bit of time getting acclimated to living & getting around. Using the NEX with the Passmo card to get from Narita to Shinjuku was an absolute life saver. I remember the local train from Narita being a bit of a pain after being on the plane for 8+ hours, so having a bit of comfort was nice.
Some photos from my first couple of days:
