Toyohiro Akiyama, first Japanese citizen and journalist in space, dies at 84
Toyohiro Akiyama, the first Japanese citizen to travel into space and the world's first journalist to report live from orbit, has died aged 84 from lower gastrointestinal bleeding. A Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) correspondent, he was selected from 162 applicants at the network to fly to Mir in 1990 to mark its 40th anniversary, becoming the first commercially sponsored cosmonaut in the process.
Akiyama launched aboard Soyuz TM-11 on 2 December 1990 alongside Soviet cosmonauts Viktor Afanasyev and Musa Manarov, spending a week on Mir filing daily video and audio dispatches for TBS, in a mission reported to have cost TBS between $12 million and $37 million. His early reports, coloured by space sickness and nicotine withdrawal, were notably downbeat, but he later warmed to the assignment, sharing footage of Mount Fuji before returning to Earth on 10 December 1990. Born in Tokyo in 1942, he later left TBS in 1995 and went on to pursue farming and environmental journalism.
In short
- Toyohiro Akiyama, first Japanese person in space, dies aged 84
- Flew to Mir in 1990 as first journalist to report from orbit
- Later left broadcasting for environmental journalism and farming
Explained simply
Mir was a Soviet space station that hosted crews in orbit, while Soyuz spacecraft carried people to and from it. In 1990, Japanese broadcaster TBS funded a flight for one of its reporters, Toyohiro Akiyama, making him the first Japanese citizen to travel into space.
Akiyama sent reports back to Earth during his week on Mir, bringing television and radio journalism into spaceflight. His mission also showed how a broadcaster could sponsor a civilian’s journey, alongside the work of professional cosmonauts.