Sichuan University has removed from its website a news story announcing the hiring of prominent Japanese archaeologist Kazuo Miyamoto (宮本一夫) — one of the world’s leading archaeologists — as a chair professor at the School of History and Culture after the announcement sparked a wave of questions and controversy on social media.
Some commentators have asked why Chinese scholars were bypassed for the post in favor of Miyamoto and why Sichuan University needed a Japanese to do Chinese archaeology. “Does Sichuan not have its own talent?” asked one person on the university’s WeChat account.
Miyamoto, who has spent his career studying East Asia and the Eurasian steppe, would continue contributing to cultural exchanges between China and the West at the university while helping to develop interdisciplinary talent.

Miyamoto is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as vice-president of the Japanese Archaeological Association.
Miyamoto began teaching at Kyushu University in Japan in 1994. He has written several academic monographs and published more than 100 papers spanning from the early Neolithic to early Iron Agecultures across East Asia, and has led archaeological excavations and research projects in various locations worldwide.
In 2003, in recognition of his research on northeast Asian influences on Japanese culture, he was presented with the Hamada Seiryo Award — the highest honor in Japanese archaeology.
Miyamoto was part of the centennial tribute series The History of China, published in Japan in 2004, writing the first volume From Myth to History: The Mythical Era and the Xia Dynasty.
He previously served as the vice-president of Kyushu University and the president of the Japan Society for Chinese Archaeology.
In 2021, Miyamoto was selected as a distinguished professor under a Ministry of Education talent program; he has served as a joint lecturer at the School of History and Culture at Sichuan University.
Miyamoto retired from Kyushu University in 2024.
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