ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the prospect and courses of agricultural and rural development revolving around land reform in contemporary South Africa, comparing it with the historical experiences of land reform in East Asian countries, namely Japan, Taiwan and Korea. Land reform became one of the economic restructuring programmes of the General Head Quarters in order to realise democratisation and the dismantlement of militarism in Japan. The government’s land reform plan was almost shelved when it was presented to the Imperial Diet in December 1945, where it was extensively criticised by conservative politicians who represented the interests of the landlords. In spite of the fact that farmers obtained land by means of land reform, the agricultural sector experienced continual decline. Japan, Taiwan, and to lesser extent Korea have in common the fact that the expansion of agricultural production through ‘successful’ land reform formed an important foundation for subsequent economic growth.
