Makiko SAKAI

Makiko SAKAI is a Professor at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS), affiliated with the African Area Studies Course in the Graduate School of Global Studies and the School of International and Area Studies. She has held roles including Associate Professor (2015-2017) and was a visiting researcher at the Fondation France-Japon de l'École des hautes études en sciences sociales (FFJ) in 2019. Her research focuses on rural sociology in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly women’s economic activities, microfinance, tontines, and mutual aid mechanisms in rural societies. She has conducted fieldwork in Chad, Tanzania, Cameroon, and other regions, emphasizing how local financial systems and socio-economic practices intersect with global development concepts.

Dr. SAKAI earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from the Institute of Economic and Social Development (IEDES), University of Paris 1 (2008). Her academic career began with roles in NGOs like Project Coordinator at Action for Greening Sahel (AGS) from 1994 to 1998 before transitioning to academia.

Her research keywords include Moral Economy, Rural Development in Francophone and East Africa, Agro-pastoralism, Famine Analysis, and Microfinance. Current research explores cash economies, urbanization, and land issues in East African agro-pastoralist communities, with a focus on Tanzania’s Dodoma region. She analyzes how urbanization and microfinance reshape traditional livelihoods.

SAKAI has received a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) from 2017 to 2018 for a sociological study of periodic market networks in Cameroon. She has also contributed to international conferences such as the 'Rise of Asia' series and the International Rural Sociology Conference, presenting on topics like Cameroonian vegetable markets, Tanzanian agriculture policies, and moral economy frameworks.

Her affiliated societies include the Japan Association for African Studies, the Association of Regional Agricultural and Forestry Economics, and the Japan Society for International Development. She co-authored the academic book *Endogenous Development, Moral Economy and Globalization in Agro-Pastoral Communities in Central Tanzania* (2016) and published a MISC work titled *Visiting the taste of Cameroun* (2019).