[HIGHLIGHTS] Mr. Wakata JAXA retirement press conference “I want to boost private space activities”

Koichi Wakata has completed five space flights and has spent a total of over 504 days in space, both records for the longest and longest stay for a Japanese person. Mr.

Wakata will be retiring from JAXA at the end of this month, and held a press conference in Tokyo on the 29th. "I want to encourage private space activities," he said with enthusiasm. He made his first space flight on the Space Shuttle in 1996, and four years later, on his second space flight in 2000, he operated a robotic arm.