[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"branding":3,"analytics":7,"article-spaces-first-journalist-toyohiro-akiyama-dies-at-84":10,"sections":35},{"siteName":4,"siteTagline":5,"publisherName":4,"contactEmail":6},"The Revision","Tech news, decoded.","editor@therevision.news",{"gaMeasurementId":8,"adsenseClientId":9},"G-ZW2MV82GYR","ca-pub-8533917693782264",{"article":11},{"id":12,"slug":13,"title":14,"dek":15,"body_md":16,"tags_json":17,"published_at":18,"created_at":19,"updated_at":20,"status":21,"review_note":22,"review_notes":23,"image_url":22,"persona_id":22,"persona_name":22,"section":24,"tags":25,"sources":30,"feedback":34,"feedback_at":22,"cost_usd":34,"total_tokens":34},5996,"spaces-first-journalist-toyohiro-akiyama-dies-at-84","Space's first journalist, Toyohiro Akiyama, dies at 84","He filed dispatches for TBS as a sponsored correspondent, a made-for-TV first that predates today's billionaire space tourism by decades.","Toyohiro Akiyama, the first Japanese citizen to fly to space, has died at 84.\n\nAkiyama died last Wednesday, August 26, of lower gastrointestinal bleeding, according to news agencies in Japan. A funeral was held with his close relatives in attendance. He flew as a correspondent for the Tokyo Broadcasting System, chosen from 162 fellow employees who applied for the trip to mark the network's 40th anniversary. He trained at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, outside Moscow, and launched as part of the Soyuz TM-11 crew.\n\nAkiyama wasn't just the first Japanese person in orbit. He was also the first commercially sponsored cosmonaut and the first journalist to file reports from space, sending dispatches for TBS while in flight. That combination, a media company buying a seat and broadcasting the results, was a corporate anniversary stunt dressed up as space exploration, and it worked: it put a human face on TBS's 40th-birthday campaign decades before \"space tourism\" was a marketing category.\n\nThree decades before Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic started selling seats to paying customers, a Japanese TV network got there first, buying a journalist a spot on a Soyuz crew instead of a movie star.","[\"space\",\"obituary\",\"journalism\",\"japan\"]","2026-09-02T14:47:42.000Z","2026-09-02T15:40:39.793Z","2026-09-02T15:40:51.704Z","published",null,[],"science",[26,27,28,29],"space","obituary","journalism","japan",[31],{"name":32,"url":33},"Ars Technica","https:\u002F\u002Farstechnica.com\u002Fspace\u002F2026\u002F09\u002Ftoyohiro-akiyama-first-japanese-citizen-and-journalist-in-space-dies-at-84\u002F",0,{"sections":36},[37,42,47,52,57,62,67,71,76,81,86,91,96,101],{"name":38,"slug":39,"count":40,"latest_published_at":41},"AI","ai",3385,"2026-09-04T22:17:36.000Z",{"name":43,"slug":44,"count":45,"latest_published_at":46},"Security","security",565,"2026-09-05T00:03:08.000Z",{"name":48,"slug":49,"count":50,"latest_published_at":51},"Policy","policy",300,"2026-09-04T22:18:34.000Z",{"name":53,"slug":54,"count":55,"latest_published_at":56},"Deals","deals",179,"2026-06-29T20:02:07.000Z",{"name":58,"slug":59,"count":60,"latest_published_at":61},"Hardware","hardware",152,"2026-09-03T09:26:48.000Z",{"name":63,"slug":64,"count":65,"latest_published_at":66},"Consumer Tech","consumer-tech",97,"2026-09-04T15:29:18.000Z",{"name":68,"slug":24,"count":69,"latest_published_at":70},"Science",96,"2026-09-03T22:30:00.000Z",{"name":72,"slug":73,"count":74,"latest_published_at":75},"Software","software",73,"2026-08-18T07:51:50.000Z",{"name":77,"slug":78,"count":79,"latest_published_at":80},"Dev Tools","dev-tools",69,"2026-08-18T04:00:00.000Z",{"name":82,"slug":83,"count":84,"latest_published_at":85},"Startups","startups",54,"2026-09-04T23:36:14.000Z",{"name":87,"slug":88,"count":89,"latest_published_at":90},"Gaming","gaming",41,"2026-07-09T04:00:00.000Z",{"name":92,"slug":93,"count":94,"latest_published_at":95},"General","general",37,"2026-09-04T20:22:41.000Z",{"name":97,"slug":98,"count":99,"latest_published_at":100},"Reviews","reviews",20,"2026-06-24T12:00:01.000Z",{"name":102,"slug":103,"count":104,"latest_published_at":105},"How-To","how-to",6,"2026-06-16T09:00:00.000Z"]