ASTRONAUTS from Japan

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Japanese Astronauts of all time. This list of famous Japanese Astronauts is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography's online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Japanese Astronauts.

1. Toyohiro Akiyama (b. 1942)

With an HPI of 62.85, Toyohiro Akiyama is the most famous Japanese Astronaut.  His biography has been translated into 37 different languages on wikipedia.

Toyohiro Akiyama (秋山 豊寛, Akiyama Toyohiro; born 22 July 1942) is a retired Japanese TV journalist and professor at Kyoto University of Art and Design. In December 1990, he spent seven days aboard the Mir space station. He became the first person of Japanese nationality to fly in space, and his space mission was the second spaceflight to be commercially sponsored and funded. Akiyama was also the first civilian to fly aboard a commercial space flight and the first journalist to report from outer space.

2. Chiaki Mukai (b. 1952)

With an HPI of 58.25, Chiaki Mukai is the 2nd most famous Japanese Astronaut.  Her biography has been translated into 38 different languages.

Chiaki Mukai (向井 千秋, Mukai Chiaki; born May 6, 1952) is a Japanese physician and JAXA astronaut. She was the first Japanese woman in space, the first Japanese citizen to have two spaceflights, and the first Asian woman in space. Both were Space Shuttle missions; her first was STS-65 aboard Space Shuttle Columbia in July 1994, which was a Spacelab mission. Her second spaceflight was STS-95 aboard Space Shuttle Discovery in 1998. In total she has spent 23 days in space. Mukai was selected to be an astronaut by Japanese national space agency NASDA (now called JAXA) in 1985. Prior to this, she was an assistant professor in the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at Keio University, the oldest university in Japan. In 2015, she became Vice President of the Tokyo University of Science. In addition, she became JAXA Technical Counselor.

3. Koichi Wakata (b. 1963)

With an HPI of 55.76, Koichi Wakata is the 3rd most famous Japanese Astronaut.  His biography has been translated into 33 different languages.

Koichi Wakata (若田 光一, Wakata Kōichi; born 1 August 1963) is a Japanese engineer and an astronaut working for Axiom Space. Wakata retired from JAXA in 2024 after a career in spaceflight spanning nearly two decades. He logged over 500 days in space across five missions: three aboard the Space Shuttle, one on the Soyuz, and one on the Crew Dragon. His missions included three long-duration stays on the International Space Station (ISS) and two short-duration flights—one to the ISS and one aboard the Space Shuttle. Notably, during Expedition 39, he became the first Japanese commander of the ISS.

4. Mamoru Mohri (b. 1948)

With an HPI of 55.51, Mamoru Mohri is the 4th most famous Japanese Astronaut.  His biography has been translated into 23 different languages.

Mamoru "Mark" Mohri, (Japanese: 毛利 衛, romanized: Mōri Mamoru; born 29 January 1948) is a Japanese scientist, a former NASDA astronaut, and a veteran of two NASA Space Shuttle missions. He is the first Japanese astronaut who was part of an official Japanese space program. The first Japanese person in space, Toyohiro Akiyama, was a journalist who was trained in the Soviet Union.

5. Takao Doi (b. 1954)

With an HPI of 54.13, Takao Doi is the 5th most famous Japanese Astronaut.  His biography has been translated into 25 different languages.

Takao Doi (土井 隆雄, Doi Takao; born September 18, 1954) is a Japanese astronaut, engineer and veteran of two NASA Space Shuttle missions.

6. Akihiko Hoshide (b. 1968)

With an HPI of 53.09, Akihiko Hoshide is the 6th most famous Japanese Astronaut.  His biography has been translated into 31 different languages.

Akihiko Hoshide (星出 彰彦, Hoshide Akihiko; born December 28, 1968) is a Japanese engineer, JAXA astronaut, and former commander of the International Space Station. On August 30, 2012, Hoshide became the third Japanese astronaut to walk in space.

7. Soichi Noguchi (b. 1965)

With an HPI of 52.45, Soichi Noguchi is the 7th most famous Japanese Astronaut.  His biography has been translated into 37 different languages.

Soichi Noguchi (野口 聡一, Noguchi Sōichi; born 15 April 1965) is a Japanese aeronautical engineer and former JAXA astronaut. His first spaceflight was as a mission specialist aboard STS-114 on 26 July 2005 for NASA's first "return to flight" Space Shuttle mission after the Columbia disaster. He was also in space as part of the Soyuz TMA-17 crew and Expedition 22 to the International Space Station (ISS), returning to Earth on 2 June 2010. He is the sixth Japanese astronaut to fly in space, the fifth to fly on the Space Shuttle, and the first to fly on Crew Dragon. His third flight was on board the Dragon 2 capsule for the SpaceX Crew-1 mission which launched successfully on 15 November 2020 and landed on 2 May 2021. This makes him the third astronaut to fly on three different launch systems. He became a part-time lecturer at the graduate school of the University of Tokyo since 2011, a project professor since 2021. As of 2022, he is a project professor at the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Nihon University. He retired from astronaut duty and quit JAXA on 1 June 2022. He assumed the honorary director of CupNoodles Museum since 7 June 2022, the chief executive fellow of the Institute for International Socio-Economic Studies and the advisor of IHI Corporation since 1 July 2022. He is the representative of MiraiSpace Co., Ltd. (合同会社未来圏).

8. Satoshi Furukawa (b. 1964)

With an HPI of 51.17, Satoshi Furukawa is the 8th most famous Japanese Astronaut.  His biography has been translated into 27 different languages.

Satoshi Furukawa (古川 聡, Furukawa Satoshi; born April 4, 1964) is a Japanese surgeon and JAXA astronaut. Furukawa was assigned to the International Space Station as a flight engineer on long-duration missions Expedition 28/29 (2011) and Expedition 69/70 (2023-2024).

9. Takuya Onishi (b. 1975)

With an HPI of 50.11, Takuya Onishi is the 9th most famous Japanese Astronaut.  Her biography has been translated into 23 different languages.

Takuya Onishi (Japanese: 大西 卓哉, Hepburn: Ōnishi Takuya; born 22 December 1975) is a Japanese astronaut selected for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in 2009. He spent four months on board the International Space Station in 2016. In March 2025, he arrived at the ISS as part of Expedition 72/73.

10. Naoko Yamazaki (b. 1970)

With an HPI of 49.94, Naoko Yamazaki is the 10th most famous Japanese Astronaut.  Her biography has been translated into 38 different languages.

Naoko Yamazaki (山崎 直子, Yamazaki Naoko; born December 27, 1970) is a Japanese engineer and former astronaut at JAXA. She was the second Japanese woman to fly in space. The first was Chiaki Mukai.