Makoto Suwa (諏訪 理, Suwa Makoto, born 1977[1] in Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese astronaut candidate selected by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
Suwa was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1977 and grew up in Tsukuba, Ibaraki.[2][3] At a young age he visited the Expo 85 held at Tsukuba.[4] While in elementary school he travelled to NASA where he met Apollo astronaut Eugene Cernan.[2][5]
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.[6][2] 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.[1][6] He then worked for the World Meteorological Organization, both at its Geneva headquarters and Office for Eastern and Southern Africa at Nairobi, Kenya.[6] 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.[1][7]
On 28 February 2022, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) selected Suwa as an astronaut candidate along with Ayu Yoneda.[2] Chosen at the age of 46, he is the oldest JAXA astronaut candidate at the time of selection.[4][5]