Toyohiro Akiyama, the first Japanese citizen to reach space and the world’s first journalist to report from orbit, died on August 26 at age 84. The cause was lower gastrointestinal bleeding, according to Japanese news agencies. A funeral was held privately with close relatives in attendance.
Akiyama flew to the Soviet Mir space station in 1990 aboard Soyuz TM-11 as a commercially sponsored cosmonaut for Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS). His mission marked the first time a Japanese national traveled to space, and he became the first journalist to file reports from orbit while covering the flight for his network.
Selected from 162 TBS employees who applied, Akiyama trained at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, before launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. His mission coincided with TBS’s 40th anniversary and helped pioneer space-based journalism.
