[1][2] Akiyama attended and earned his bachelor's degree at the International Christian University located in Mitaka, Tokyo.

From 1984 to 1988, he served as TBS chief correspondent in Washington D.C.[4][5] On 17 August 1989, Akiyama was selected for a commercial Soviet-Japanese flight.

[citation needed] TBS wanted to send the first Japanese person to space in order to boost their TV ratings.

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.

[10] 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.

[2] 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.

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".

Akiyama received multiple awards and decorations, including:[17] He made reports in Japanese, which were published later, dedicated to his space flight.