| Asia is a disaster prone continent, either for man-made or natural disaster. Natural disasters occur frequently in Asia in various forms. From earthquake in Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, and Japan, flood in Bangladesh and Vietnam, tsunami in Indonesia, Thailand, and Srilanka, typhoon in Taiwan, to volcano and landslide in Philippine. However, only a small number of Asian countries seriously pay attention to disaster management. Not to mention Japan which is among the best country equipped with natural disaster management and policies. Scholars believe that Natural disasters are unavoidable since they are part of nature or God’s plan. However, state and its people have strict obligation to mitigate or reduce the risk/damage of disaster by introducing disaster preparedness program. Among of the disaster preparedness program is creating the policies or laws related to disaster management as guidance or grounds in dealing with the disaster management program. Therefore, this paper would like to explore the policies of natural disaster management based on fieldworks in Japan and Thailand from August 2006 – March 2007, as tools to understand the current situation of Indonesian disaster management and polices. For Indonesia, the legislation and enactment of natural disaster management policies are among the top priority since the country has been seriously injured by earthquakes, tsunami, massive floods, landslides, and fires for the decades. |