Makoto Suwa

Makoto Suwa (諏訪 理) is a Japanese astronaut candidate selected by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

Early life
Suwa was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1977 and grew up in Tsukuba, Ibaraki. At a young age he visited the Expo 85 held at Tsukuba. While in elementary school he travelled to NASA where he met Apollo astronaut Eugene Cernan.

Education and career
Suwa graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1999. He received a Ph.D. in climate science from Duke University, and a master of environment management degree from Princeton University. In 2008 he joined the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers and was despatched to Rwanda, where he served as a lecturer at the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology. He then worked for the World Meteorological Organization, both at its Geneva headquarters and Office for Eastern and Southern Africa at Nairobi, Kenya. From 2014 he worked at the World Bank's Global Facility for Disaster Risk Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR); at the time of his astronaut selection he held the role of Senior Disaster Risk Management Specialist.

On 28 February 2022, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) selected Suwa as an astronaut candidate along with Ayu Yoneda. Chosen at the age of 46, he is the oldest JAXA astronaut candidate at the time of selection.