Theodore C. Bestor (August 7, 1951 – July 1, 2021) was a professor of anthropology and Japanese studies at Harvard University.
In 2018, he resigned as director from the Reischauer Institute following an investigation by Harvard officials that found he committed two counts of sexual misconduct.
He started his career as program director for Japanese and Korean studies at the Social Science Research Council.
Much of his research has focused on contemporary Tokyo, including an ethnography of daily life in an ordinary neighborhood, Miyamoto-cho.
In 2018, a Harvard investigation found Bestor committed two counts of sexual misconduct during an interaction with a female professor at a 2017 conference at UCLA.
Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences disciplined Bestor for the incident, but allowed him to return to work before completing the required sanctions.