A Japanese archaeologist living in Hanoi died Sunday when his motorcycle collided with a truck while riding on a toll road in the city, local authorities said.
Masanari Nishimura, 47, was on his way to Bac Ninh Province near Hanoi for fieldwork when he hit the truck from behind, authorities said.
Nishimura, a former assistant professor at Kansai University and visiting researcher at Kanazawa University, had been involved in research mainly in Vietnam for more than 20 years. He won the Japan Society for Southeast Asian Studies History Award in 2012 for a book he wrote.
He also founded a nonprofit group in Japan that was working to safeguard underground cultural heritages in Southeast Asia while supporting the establishment of a museum in Bac Nihn and training Vietnamese researchers.