Naoko Kumada’s main research focus is religious practice in Myanmar. Her doctoral dissertation on Myanmar society, religion, and economy in the context of daily life and practice was one of the first anthropological studies by a foreign scholar to rely on fluency in the Burmese language.

After the opening of Myanmar, she spent time as a policy adviser to the government on urbanization. Currently, at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, she continues to monitor government policy in Myanmar with a view to its regional implications. She tracks the development of Japan-Southeast Asia relations in the newly emerging geopolitical environment.

She completed advanced study of the Burmese Language at the University of Foreign Languages, Yangon, in 1994-96. In 2002, she received a doctorate in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge for a dissertation entitled “In the World of Rebirth: Politics, Economy and Society of Burmese Buddhists.” The dissertation summarized her findings from over one year of residence in villages in the Magwe Division of Upper Burma.

Between 2002 and 2009, she was a Fellow at Stanford University’s Centre for Buddhist Studies.