First live reporter in space Toyohiro Akiyama dies at 84

Toyohiro Akiyama, the first journalist to travel to space and the first Japanese astronaut, died on Aug. 26, 2026, The Mainichi reported.

Akiyama was part of the Soviet Soyuz TM-11 mission to the Mir space station, which launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Dec. 2, 1990, with crew members Viktor Afanasyev and Musa Manarov. He returned to Earth on Dec. 10, 1990.

Akiyama held various positions at Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) before being selected to participate in a commercial spaceflight project financed by the broadcaster under an agreement with the Soviet Union. He trained at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City.

Aboard Mir, Akiyama served as a research astronaut and reporter, broadcasting live daily from the space station. According to the Los Angeles Times, in addition to his broadcasts, Akiyama was tasked with photographing environmental damage on Earth and conducting experiments on Japanese tree frogs to study how they coped with zero gravity.

After returning to Earth, he continued working for TBS until leaving the broadcaster in 1995. He later took up organic farming and, in 2011, became a professor at Kyoto University of Art and Design, now Kyoto University of the Arts.