is a Japanese

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike; uni (if one-wheeled); trike (if three-wheeled); quad (if four-wheeled)) is a lightweight private 1-to-2 passenger personal motor vehicle Steering, steered by a Motorcycle handlebar, handlebar from a saddle-style ...

road racer Road racing is a North American term to describe motorsport racing held on a paved road surface. The races can be held on a closed circuit—generally, a purpose-built racing facility—or on a street circuit that uses temporarily closed public ...

. He is a two-time champion in the All-Japan Superbike Championship, and has competed sporadically in the MotoGP World Championship. He is known in his native Japan as a competitor in the MFJ All Japan Road Race GP250 Championship, and most notably the All Japan Superbike championship, where he has enjoyed success with the Yoshimura

Suzuki is a Japanese multinational mobility manufacturer headquartered in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, Shizuoka. It manufactures automobiles, motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), outboard motor, outboard marine engines, wheelchairs and a va ...

team riding a

Suzuki GSX-R1000 The Suzuki GSX-R1000 (often called a Gixxer) is a sports motorcycle made by Suzuki. It was introduced in 2001 to replace the Suzuki GSX-R1100, GSX-R1100, and is powered by a water cooling, liquid-cooled Inline-four engine, transverse four-cylind ...

. In July 2007 he, along with

Yukio Kagayama is a Japanese professional motorcycle road racer. He began his motorcycle racing career competing in the Japanese national championships before racing internationally in Grand Prix motorcycle racing, the Superbike World Championship as well as ...

, won the

Suzuka 8 Hours The is a motorcycle endurance race held at the Suzuka Circuit in Japan each year. The race runs for eight hours consecutively, and entrants are composed of two or more riders who alternate during pitstops. History The race began in 1978 as a ...

endurance race on a Yoshimura Suzuki bike.

Career

National racing

Akiyoski made his début in the All Japan GP250 Championship in 1995, riding a

Suzuki RGV250 The Suzuki RGV250 was a Suzuki high performance sport bike which had a great number of its features and design cues based on Grand Prix technologies and ideas. It is a race-replica based on Suzuki's GP bikes from 1987 to 1998, the RGV V-2 race ...

. He finished in 24th in his first season, before improving to 10th the following season. In 1997, Akiyoshi moved into the All Japan Superbike Championship – later the All Japan JSB1000 Championship – where he has spent the majority of his career. He won the championship in 2010 and 2011, riding a

Honda CBR1000RR The Honda CBR1000RR, marketed in some countries with the Fireblade suffix (capitalized as FireBlade until the 2000s), is a sport bike produced by Honda since 2004 as the seventh generation of the Honda CBR series, CBR Honda Fireblade, Fireblade s ...

Grand Prix appearances

Akiyoshi has also competed in a number of Grands Prix of the

MotoGP Grand Prix motorcycle racing is the highest class of motorcycle road racing events held on Road racing, road circuits sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). Independent motorcycle racing events have been held sin ...

series. These have included The

Japanese Grand Prix The Japanese Grand Prix () is a motor racing event in the calendar of the Formula One World Championship. Historically, Japan has been one of the last races of the season, and as such the Japanese Grand Prix has been the venue for many title-de ...

at Motegi, where he finished 13th on his debut with the

Rizla Suzuki Suzuki MotoGP was the factory-backed team of Japanese motorcycle manufacturer Suzuki in the MotoGP World Championship, most recently using the name Team Suzuki Ecstar for sponsorship purposes. Suzuki withdrew from MotoGP competition at the conc ...

team as a wildcard rider, as well as two races in

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

Jerez Jerez de la Frontera () or simply Jerez, also cited in old English-language sources as , is a city and municipality in the province of Cádiz in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Located in southwestern Iberia, it lies on the Campi� ...

and Japan. He came 17th at the Spanish race, and had a good run in Japan where he was running 7th behind

Casey Stoner Casey Joel Stoner (born 16 October 1985) is an Australian retired professional motorcycle racer, and a two-time MotoGP World Champion, in and . During his MotoGP career, Stoner raced for the factory teams of Ducati and Honda, winning a tit ...

, but retired four laps from the finish. In

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

, he competed in the Japanese Grand Prix for a third year running, again for Rizla Suzuki. He retired on lap 1 after going down at the first corner. In the 2010 season, Akiyoshi stood in for the injured

Hiroshi Aoyama is a Japanese retired Grand Prix motorcycle road racer, and current team principal of Honda Team Asia. Aoyama is best known for winning the 2009 250cc World Championship title. He is the older brother of former 250cc and World Superbike rider, ...

at the Interwetten Honda team. He competed in two races for the team, finishing 15th at the

Dutch TT The Dutch Tourist Trophy, also known as the ''TT Assen'', and also sometimes known as the Dutch Motorcycle Grand Prix, is an annual Dutch motorsport event established in 1925 for road racing motorcycles held on the TT Circuit Assen, also known ...

Assen Assen () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Northeastern Netherlands, and is the capital (politics), capital of the province of Drenthe. It received City rights in ...

and 13th at the Catalan Grand Prix in

Catalunya Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

. He was then replaced by San Marinese rider

Alex de Angelis Alex de Angelis (born 26 February 1984) is a Sammarinese retired motorcycle road racer. Career 125cc World Championship Born in Rimini, de Angelis made his debut at world championship level in 1999 in the 125 cc class; his first full season was ...

. Akiyoshi replaced Aoyama once again at the

Gresini Racing Gresini Racing is a motorcycle racing team competing in the Grand Prix motorcycle racing, MotoGP World Championship under the name Gresini Racing MotoGP as a Ducati satellite team, in the Moto2 World Championship as Italjet Gresini Racing Moto2, ...

team for the

2011 Dutch TT The 2011 Dutch TT was the seventh round of the 2011 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place on the weekend of 23–25 June 2011 at the TT Circuit Assen. MotoGP race report This race was most notable for Marco Simoncelli taking out J ...

, however not through injury, as Aoyama himself replaced the injured

Dani Pedrosa Daniel Pedrosa Ramal (born 29 September 1985) is a Spanish Grand Prix motorcycle racing, Grand Prix motorcycle racer who retired from regular competition after the season. He grew up in Castellar del Vallès, a village near Sabadell. He is a ...

Repsol Honda Honda HRC Castrol is the official factory team of the Honda Racing Corporation in the MotoGP class of Grand Prix motorcycle racing (World Championship road racing), formally backed by principal sponsor Repsol for 30 years until the end of 2024 ...

. Akiyoshi also competed at the

as a wildcard entry with

LCR Honda LCR Team is a motorcycle racing team competing in the Grand Prix motorcycle racing, MotoGP World Championship under the name Castrol Honda LCR with rider Johann Zarco and Idemitsu Honda LCR with rider Somkiat Chantra, as well as the MotoE World C ...

– along with

Shinichi Itoh born , in Kakuda, Miyagi, Japan) is a retired professional Grand Prix motorcycle road racer. He has raced extensively in Japanese and International championships. Ito has competed in the All Japan Road Race Championship, and won the Japanese 50 ...

, racing for HRC Honda – as a gesture of support for those affected by the March

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami On 11 March 2011, at 14:46:24 Japan Standard Time, JST (05:46:24 UTC), a 9.0–9.1 Submarine earthquake, undersea megathrust earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region. It lasted approx ...

Career statistics

Races by year

( key)

Suzuka 8 Hours results

Asia Superbike 1000

Races by year

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

References

External links

*
Kousuke Akiyoshi official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Akiyoshi, Kousuke Japanese motorcycle racers Honda HRC MotoGP riders Living people 1975 births Sportspeople from Kurume Suzuki MotoGP riders Gresini Racing MotoGP riders LCR Team MotoGP riders MotoGP World Championship riders