astronomy

Toyohiro Akiyama

Toyohiro Akiyama is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Toyohiro Akiyama rather than just read about it. In short: Toyohiro Akiyama (秋山豊寛, Akiyama Toyohiro; born 22 July 1942) is a retired Japanese TV journalist and professor at Kyoto University of Art and Design. In December 1990, he spent seven days aboard the Mir space station.

Key takeaways

Toyohiro Akiyama belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Toyohiro Akiyama to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Toyohiro Akiyama from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Toyohiro Akiyama (秋山豊寛, Akiyama Toyohiro; born 22 July 1942) is a retired Japanese TV journalist and 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.

Education and career

Akiyama attended and earned his bachelor's degree at the International Christian University located in Mitaka, Tokyo. He then joined the Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) as a journalist in 1966. He worked for the BBC World Service from 1967–1971 before becoming a correspondent for the TBS Division of Foreign News. From 1984 to 1988, he served as TBS chief correspondent in Washington D.C.

Space training On 17 August 1989, Akiyama was selected for a commercial Soviet-Japanese flight. The flight was sponsored by the TBS Corporation to celebrate its fortieth anniversary. The amount that the corporation paid for the flight of its employee differs significantly from one source to another (US$28 million, US$25 million, 5 billion yen or US$37 million). Akiyama started training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in October 1989.

Spaceflight TBS wanted to send the first Japanese person to space in order to boost their TV ratings. 163 TBS employees applied for the opportunity to fly to space. 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 for cosmonaut training and he was the primary crew member, with no backup in place. Akiyama began cosmonaut training in August 1989 in a deal between TBS and the Soviet Union. The commercialization of space flight was evident by the Soyuz TM-11 covered with advertising of TBS and other Japanese companies. Akiyama's mission marked the first flight of a person of Japanese nationality in space as well as the first commercially sponsored and funded spaceflight of an individual in history. Akiyama also became the first journalist to give live reports from space. 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 2 December 1990 along with mission commander Viktor Afanasyev and flight engineer Musa Manarov. Akiyama was not a trained astronaut, scientist nor engineer. During his time aboard Mir, Akiyama gave live reports each day documenting life aboard the station, but his apparent discomfort led to him being described as the first "antihero in space". He described his struggles such as space sickness and craving for cigarettes: During training, he quit smoking cigarettes, having previously smoked four packs a day. Before liftoff, when asked what he looked forward to most upon his return to Earth, he said "I can't wait to have a smoke". His fellow cosmonauts later reported, in regards to his nausea, that they "hadn't ever seen a man vomit that much." Initially, the TBS TV viewership was high, but by midweek, it declined slightly above normal. Various reports have cited a flight cost paid by TBS as between US$12 million and US$37 million. The company reportedly lost US$7.4 million on the deal. Akiyama eventually returned to Earth just over a week later aboard Soyuz TM-10 along with Gennadi Manakov and Gennadi Strekalov on 10 December. While onboard the space station, Akiyama made nightly live broadcasts.

Later career Akiyama returned to TBS after completing his spaceflight and became deputy director of the TBS News Division. He retired from TBS in 1995, because he disagreed with the active commercialization of television. In April 1991, he shot a film, with a group of Japanese journalists, about the state of the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan. From January 1996, he engaged in organic farming with rice and mushrooms in the Abukuma mountains in the town Takine, near Tamura, Fukushima, Fukushima Prefecture. He also wrote books and gave lectures focusing on environmental issues. In March 2011, he was personally affected by the Fukushima disaster and was forced to abandon his farm. On 1 November 2011, he became a professor of agriculture at the Faculty of Arts, Kyoto University of Art and Design.

Personal life Akiyama was married to Kyoko Akiyama, and the couple had a son and a daughter. He left his family in Tokyo to go farm. They divorced in 1995.

Awards and decorations Akiyama received multiple awards and decorations, including:

1990 – Order of Friendship of Peoples (10 December 1990, Soviet Union), "for the successful implementation of space flight on the orbital research complex Mir" 1991 – Tokyo Metropolitan Cultural Honor award 2000 – Japanese Society for Biological Sciences in Space Achievement Award 2011 – Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration" (12 April 2011, Russia), "for a great contribution to the development of international cooperation in the field of manned space exploration"

Publications He made reports in Japanese, which were published later, dedicated to his space flight. He also co-authored articles on the development of space tourism and farming.

The Pleasure of Spaceflight, Journal of Space Technology and Science – Vol.9 No.1'93. Journey around agriculture – 1 Mar 1998 Japanese astronaut official photographic record collection (1991) ISBN 4096805912 Farmer's Diary (1998) ISBN 4104248010 Space – 1 Aug 1992 Space (above) (Bungei Bunko) – 1 Aug 1995 Space (below) (Bungei Bunko) – 1 Aug 1995 To living with agriculture – earth and space (1999) ISBN 4000001809 Space Specialist 9 Days-First Japanese Astronaut Experience All Records – 1 Feb 1991 This is a space correspondent! I went to space! – 1 Feb 1991 Hoe and Spacecraft – 30 Nov 2007

See also Lists of astronauts List of Japanese astronauts Mamoru Mohri – first astronaut of an official Japanese space agency

References

External links Spacefacts biography of Toyohiro Akiyama

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Toyohiro Akiyama

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Toyohiro Akiyama claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Toyohiro Akiyama before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Toyohiro Akiyama ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Toyohiro Akiyama

In research: Toyohiro Akiyama appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Toyohiro Akiyama in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Toyohiro Akiyama is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1942 births, Academic staff of Kyoto University of the Arts, International Christian University alumni, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Toyohiro Akiyama outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Toyohiro Akiyama” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Toyohiro Akiyama in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Toyohiro Akiyama means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Toyohiro Akiyama out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Toyohiro Akiyama in simple terms?

Why does Toyohiro Akiyama matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Toyohiro Akiyama?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Toyohiro Akiyama.