Talk:Toyohiro Akiyama

Space tourist category

• Toyohiro Akiyama was not a space tourist and should not be categorized as such. He was a television journalist sent by his company to provide reports from the Mir space station. Hektor 08:41, 2 February 2007 (UTC)
• The category "Spaceflight participant" did not exist at the time and his a creation of NASA PR in the ISS context. Call him spaceflight participant is therefore OR. Hektor (talk) 05:46, 25 July 2009 (UTC)

He is referred to as such from reputable sources (ie. LA Times etc). Similarly, US politicians who flew on the Shuttle are also so referred (also called "ballast"). These are non-professional space travellers, termed "space tourists" despite doing a report from space or political factfinding. Akiyama was a private space traveller instead of governmental or military, and not part of science crew. True, his jaunt was paid for by his employer and he was working in space, just as politicos did factfinding. -- 65.92.246.142 (talk) 10:20, 14 April 2022 (UTC)

First person of Japanese descent

While Akiyama was the first Japanese citizen in space he was not the "first person of Japanese descent in space". That would be Onizuka who was killed in the Challenger disaster. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.17.172.181 (talk) 20:39, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

I must concur, as LTC Onizuka traveled reached space in 1985, a full five years before Akiyama. Here is a reliable source referencing him as the first person of Japanese ancestry in space. Therefore I will modify this--RightCowLeftCoast (talk) 18:09, 18 September 2014 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion

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• Akiyama Toyohiro.jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 00:36, 16 December 2019 (UTC)