Projects in Japanese Archaeology and Cultural Heritage promote Japanese archaeology through collaborative fieldwork, research into collections, symposia and publications. Building on the success of the 2001 exhibition of Jomon archaeology held at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and the 2004 international conference on the 'Archaeology of Towns in Medieval Japan and Beyond', the Institute is proactively developing projects on various aspects of Japanese archaeology, in particular on prehistoric figurines and the development of riverine landscapes. In this connection, Jomon Reflections by Professor Kobayashi Tatsuo (edited by Simon Kaner with Oki Nakamura) was published in 2005 by Oxbow Books and a volume on the archaeology of medieval towns is planned for 2007.

The Sainsbury Institute welcomed the members of the ICAA, under the directorship of Professor Richard Hodges, to 64 The Close in January 2006. The Institute is collaborating with the ICAA on a project on prehistoric figurines. An international workshop on this theme is to be held at the Institute in December 2006 with a joint exhibition at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts planned for 2009.

In February 2005 the Institute signed an agreement for research cooperation with the Kyushu University 21st Century Centres of Excellence (COE) Programme, Interactions and Transitions in East Asian History. The programme leader, Professor Imanishi Yuichiro, visited Norwich in spring 2005 with Mizoguchi Koji. The Assistant Director gave a series of lectures at Kyushu University in May and gave a paper on 'Aspects of the Internationalisation of Japanese Archaeology' in August 2006 at a special symposium marking the signing of the Consortium Agreement between the Kyushu University COE and the other nine participating members. Mizoguchi participated in the Sainsbury Institute-Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation-Japan Society seminar on 'Does Heritage Matter?', gave lectures on Japanese archaeology at UEA, SOAS, and Cambridge University, and, with Takehiko Matsugi from Okayama University, took part in a round-table discussion on Yayoi archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London.

In October 2005 the Director and Assistant Director visited the Niigata Prefectural Museum of History in Nagaoka to conclude an agreement for research cooperation. The Director of the Museum, Professor Kobayashi Tatsuo, is Professor of Archaeology at Kokugakuin University in Tokyo. Both the Niigata Prefectural Museum of History and Kokugakuin University were key partners, along with the Sainsbury Institute, in the 2001 exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, Flaming Pots: Art and Landscape in Prehistoric Japan, curated by the Assistant Director. Joint activities include a programme of archaeological field research investigating the development of the historic landscapes of the Shinano River in central Honshu, and assistance with the development of the archaeology and cultural heritage holdings of the Lisa Sainsbury Library.

The Sainsbury Institute is a core member of the major new interdisciplinary research project on landscape archaeology and history called NEOMAP at the Research Institute in Humanities and Nature in Kyoto, a new inter-university research institute. Subsequently to the Assistant Director's participation in a pre-symposium in Kyoto in October 2005, the project leader Uchiyama Junzo visited Norwich and took part in the workshop on landscape archaeology in June 2006.