Toyohiro Akiyama
First Japanese astronaut
- Lived
- 1942–2026
- Country
- Japan
Updated September 2026
About Toyohiro Akiyama
Toyohiro Akiyama was a Japanese television journalist and academic who was a professor at Kyoto University of Art and Design. In December 1990, he spent seven days aboard the Mir space station. He became the first person of Japanese nationality to fly in space, and his space mission was the second spaceflight to be commercially sponsored and funded. Akiyama was also the first civilian to fly aboard a commercial space flight and the first journalist to report from outer space.
Biography from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
Sources: book lists and dates from Wikidata and Open Library, ratings from Open Library readers. Last updated September 2026.