A 28-year-old female surgeon was unveiled as one of Japan's new astronaut candidates by the space agency on Tuesday, putting her on a course to become the third Japanese woman to go into space after Chiaki Mukai and Naoko Yamazaki.

Ayu Yoneda, the youngest candidate to be chosen by the agency, and Makoto Suwa, 46, were selected from over 4,000 applicants, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said.

Yoneda will be joining a crew that is currently all male — the average age is 53 and the required retirement age is 60. She and Suwa successfully passed the selection process after a series of exams that began in April 2022. They are JAXA's first two new recruits in 13 years.

Last year, JAXA dropped its university degree requirement for the first time in its history, resulting in a record 4,127 applicants in 2022 — four times the amount seen in the previous selection process, which ran in the fiscal year that began April 2008.

The two said they learned of the decision by phone Monday.

“I was happy and surprised,” Yoneda said. “I also felt a sense of responsibility and calling, which was a very sobering experience, and eventually a sense of gratitude to the people who have supported me thus far.”

A graduate of the University of Tokyo’s School of Medicine, Yoneda is a Japanese Red Cross Medical Center surgeon currently working at Toranomon Hospital in Tokyo.

“Of course there are factors such as age and gender, and I think that men and women are often viewed in different ways, but I myself would like to put forth my best first as an astronaut candidate rather than as one that is a young female,” she said, commenting on the all-male environment.

"I hope to use my knowledge as a doctor to give back to the Earth.”

Meanwhile, Suwa currently works for the World Bank as a senior disaster prevention specialist based in Washington. He attended Princeton University’s graduate school, where he studied geosciences, before working in Rwanda as a teacher at both high school and college levels via the Japan International Cooperation Agency’s overseas volunteer program and then with the U.N.’s World Meteorological Organization.

After unsuccessfully applying in the previous round, Suwa said that he had been eager to apply for a second time last year.

“It’ll be quite a career shift for me, making it important for me to truly work hard in the time to come,” Suwa said. “I strongly believe that the results of space development should be more and more recognized — not only in Japan but also in other countries around the world.”

The candidates have both held an interest in space from a young age.

Suwa remembers how in his teenage years he saw the news about Mamoru Mohri becoming Japan’s first-ever astronaut to travel to space in a space shuttle 30 years ago.

“The job just sparkled to me,” Suwa said, alluding to its appeal. “It reinforced in me that I wanted to be an astronaut one day.”

Yoneda became interested in becoming an astronaut when her father gave her the manga version of astronaut Mukai’s biography as a child.

“I learned about the job of an astronaut from that book and was moved by the moment where she was overcome by the view she saw of Earth from space,” she said. “That’s when I began to look toward space.”

Yoneda and Suwa will undergo a two-year training period with the goal of being officially certified as astronauts. They're expected to ultimately participate in a long-term stay on the International Space Station, as well as a visit to a new base constructed on the moon via the U.S.-led Artemis lunar exploration program.

As the world pursues more space exploration and research, and people become able to stay in the Earth’s orbit for longer periods of time, new ventures into the skies above will only continue to expand across the globe, JAXA President Hiroshi Yamakawa said, creating more opportunities for the candidates.

“Our astronauts may play an active role in supporting various economic activities in the private sector, and at the same time, they may play a role in expanding science and technology,” he said. “The options are only increasing for astronauts.”