He won a gold medal in the 4 × 5 km team event at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2009 in Liberec.

Competing in two Winter Olympics, Watabe earned his best finish of sixth in the 4 x 5 team event at Vancouver in 2010 and had his best individual finish of ninth in the 10 km individual large hill event at those same games.

During the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, Akito Watabe took home the silver medal in the Nordic Combined Individual Gundersen NH / 10 km, Cross-Country event.

[1] In the 2018 Olympics, Watabe won the silver medal in the normal hill/10 km Nordic combined competition.

[2] Akito's younger brother, Yoshito also competes in Nordic Combined World Cup.