Toyohiro Akiyama Status: Retired 6/22/1942 – Nationality: Japanese Type: Non-Astronaut Passenger Agency: Toyohiro Akiyama (born July 22, 1942) is a Japanese TV journalist best known for his flight to the Mir space station aboard a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft in 1990. Akiyama is the first person of Japanese nationality to have flown in space.