LEE Sohee is an Adjunct Lecturer at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. She previously served as a Researcher at the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Japan. Her research interests lie in international development, rural development, community empowerment, and comparative studies between Korea and Japan. She is currently in the process of completing her Ph.D. dissertation on the role of local agency in Korea’s rural development process from the colonial period onward. She received her M.A. and completed doctoral coursework at the Department of Advanced Social and International Studies, University of Tokyo. Her recent publications include: ‘The Spirit of Self-Help in Korea’s Saemaul Undong: The Paradox of “Enforced Self-Help”’, and ‘Memories of Rural Development Movements: Peasant Resistance and Acceptance under the Mobilization System’.