Professor Akiyama, is Emeritus Professor at the University of Tokyo and the former vice president of Science Council of Japan. Professor Akiyama has conducted a number of cross-national surveys and is widely recognised as an expert on issues of global ageing.

She is known for the long-running research on older people in Japan—tracking the ageing patterns of approximately 6,000 Japanese older people over 30 years.

She also initiated social experiment projects that pioneer to re-design communities to meet the needs of the highly aged society, and more recently Kamakura Living Lab, a platform for open innovation by co-creation among users, industry, government and academia. She started the Institute of Gerontology at University of Tokyo in 2006.