Michiko Chiura, also Michiko Mori-Chiura, Japanese: 千浦美智子 (1947/48 - 1982[1]) was a Japanese archaeologist, who was an early proponent of archaeological flotation in Japan.[2] In the 1970s she pioneered the study of coprolites in Japan, with particular focus on those from the Torihama shell mound in Fukui Prefecture.[1][3] Chiura studied for her undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto, then subsequently worked at the International Christian University in Tokyo.[2] She died aged 35 in 1982.[1][4] Her death from cancer, and attitude to life, was written about by Shigeaki Hinohara, who was her physician.[5]