Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has paid tribute to the people of Japan for their honour, discipline and fortitude in facing the aftermath of the March earthquake and tsunami.
The Prime Minister, in expressing Malaysia's deepest sympathies for the calamities that have befallen Japan, said such Japanese qualities that have steered Japan to dizzying heights of economic success would continue to play a big part in the country's recovery.
"This is important, because utimately any effort to meet Asia's challenges and to rise above adversity will start, as it will end, with our people.
"Yes, we will need to put in place the physical structure, the industrial capacity, the technology and of course the finance.
"But above all, we will need dynamic and resilient human capital, so we must nurture and develop the very best of human capital," he said in his address at the 17th Nikkei International Conference here.
Najib said Malaysia would continue to support Japan's efforts to tackle a situation that has been described as the toughest since the Second World War.
"But Malaysia's commitment to Japan in your hour of need is much more that just a dialogue between governments, it is an understanding between peoples.
"Malaysia and the whole of Southeast Asia is of one mind and of one purpose.
"Whereas in the past we have been bound by our interests and economic partners, today, in the face of crisis and adversity, we are bound to each other as friends and members of one community - a community that is far from being imagined as some would have it, is tangible and real," he added.
Najib is scheduled to meet Japanese captains of industries later before returning home.
