Education
Akiyama attended and earned his bachelor"s degree at the International Christian University located in Mitaka, Tokyo.
秋山 豊寛
Akiyama attended and earned his bachelor"s degree at the International Christian University located in Mitaka, Tokyo.
Akiyama is the first person of Japanese nationality to have flown in space. He was known as the "Space Journalist" (宇宙特派員) in Japan. He then joined the Tokyo Broadcasting System (Turner Broadcasting System) as a journalist in 1966.
He worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation World Service from 1967-1971 before becoming a correspondent for the Turner Broadcasting System Division of Foreign News.
From 1984 to 1988, Akiyama served as Turner Broadcasting System chief correspondent in Washington District of Columbia Akiyama was selected for cosmonaut training in August 1989 in a deal between Turner Broadcasting System and the Soviet Union.
Akiyama"s flight became the first commercially organized spaceflight in history. 163 Turner Broadcasting System employees had applied for the opportunity to fly. Eventually, Akiyama and camerawoman Ryoko Kikuchi were selected as the two final candidates.
When Kikuchi developed a case of appendicitis a week before launch, Akiyama was selected as the primary crew member, with no backup in place.
After successfully completing a Research Cosmonaut training course at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in present-day Russia, Akiyama launched aboard the Soyuz TM-11 mission to the Mir space station on December 2, 1990 along with mission commander Viktor Afanasyev and flight engineer Musa Manarov. During his time aboard Mir, Akiyama gave live reports each day documenting life aboard the station.
He returned just over a week later aboard Soyuz TM-10 along with Gennadi Manakov and Gennady Strekalov on December 10. Akiyama"s mission marked the first flight of a person of Japanese descent in space as well as the first commercially sponsored and funded spaceflight of an individual in history.
Various reports have cited a flight cost paid by Turner Broadcasting System as between United States$12 million and United States$37 million.
The company reportedly lost United States$7.4 million on the deal. Akiyama returned to Turner Broadcasting System after completing his spaceflight and became deputy director of the Turner Broadcasting System News Division. He then retired from Turner Broadcasting System in 1995.
Akiyama is married and has two children.
He was personally affected by the Fukushima disaster and had to abandon his farm.