During my tenure there, Pakistan went through the heightening of tension resulting from the Islamist resistance to the U.S.-led military action in Afghanistan after September 11, 2001, and the near-war with India in May 2002.
As I witnessed the people of this "frontline state" coping with security as a life and death issue, Japan appeared blissfully peaceful to me. To us Japanese, the Great East Japan Earthquake was comparable as a crisis to 9/11, meriting the acronym 3/11 (March 11).
What 9/11 meant to Pakistan as a frontline state is naturally very different from what 3/11 means to Japan as a disaster-stricken state.