Toyohiro Akiyama

Toyohiro Akiyama was a Japanese television journalist who became the first Japanese citizen to fly in space, launching aboard a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft in December 1990 to the Mir space station as part of a commercial arrangement with his employer, the Tokyo Broadcasting System. He filed daily television reports from orbit during his roughly week-long stay, making him one of the earliest examples of a journalist reporting live from space rather than a professional astronaut or scientist.