Socio-Economic History of Myanmar’s Rural Villages and the Effects of Regime Changes

This is the first book to depict the transformation and steadiness of Myanmar’s rural socio-economy from within the villages based on my own detailed research, in relation with the regime changes from Burmese Way to Socialism to military junta and to democratization from 1986 to 2019.
The main subject of the transformation is ＂de-agrarianisation＂ including land use and holdings, household incomes, non-, migrations, power structure, village landscape, etc. And the principal theme of the steadiness is the ＂absence of village collective＂ which is the core of rural Myanmar, in contrast to village communities like Japan. This is the reason why Myanmar villagers have lived surprisingly bright, free and independent despite the oppressive political economy under the socialism and the military junta, and have not collectively participated in so-called community development.
This book is the result of research conducted by visiting more than 200 villages and interviewing more than 10,000 people by myself in Myanmar language.

Akio Takahashi is Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo. The main subject of his research is the agricultural and rural economy of Myanmar (Burma). He taught Southeast Asian Economy at the Graduate School of Economics, University of Tokyo from 1996 to 2023. He received his B.A. (1981) and his Doctor of Economics degree (1993) from the Faculty of Economics, University of Kyoto. Before teaching at the University of Tokyo, he was a researcher at the Institute of Developing Economies from 1981 to 1996. While working for IDE, he was sent to Myanmar twice: first he stayed there as a student in the department of the Burmese language of the Institute of Foreign Languages, Yangon from 1986 to 1988, and then as a senior researcher of the Department of Agricultural Planning, Ministry of Agriculture from 1993 to 1995.He has made numerous village studies in rural Myanmar by means of direct interviews with the villagers since the last stage of the Burmese Socialism era. His main interest has been the relationship between regimes and village economy, including non-farm activities as well as agriculture. He has also studied the change of agricultural policy and the economic history of Myanmar after independence. Recently he has extended his research perspectives to the socio-economy of peripheral areas where various minorities reside, and to the history of peasant’s livelihoods in Myanmar. Besides his academic studies, he has stayed in Myanmar for several months a year as a JICA (Japan International Corporation Agency) expert and advised both the governments of Myanmar and Japan.
Professor Takahashi’s major publications on Myanmar’s economic history and socio-economic transformation in rural areas include Myanmar of the People: A Country in Transition, Seen Through the Life in Rural Villages (Tokyo: Akashishoten, 2018, 207pp.), State and People of Myanmar: An Attempt at Comparative Village Society Theory between Japan and Myanmar (Tokyo: Akashishoten, 2012, 198pp.), Myanmar’s Village Economy in Transition: Farmers and Non-Farmers Under the Market-oriented Economy (Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai, vi+339pp.), and A Rice Village in the Burma Delta: Village Economy under ’Socialism’ (Tokyo: Institute of Developing Economies, 1992, x + 249 pp.).