Two people have been chosen as new candidates for Japan's astronaut corps, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency announced Tuesday.
Makoto Suwa, 46, is a senior disaster risk management specialist at the World Bank, and Ayu Yoneda, 28, is a surgeon at the Japanese Red Cross Medical Center. Both come from Tokyo.
They were selected from among the 4,127 applicants -- a record high -- who took JAXA's recent exam to select astronaut candidates. Suwa is the oldest person ever to pass the exam, and Yoneda is the third woman after Chiaki Mukai, now 70, and Naoko Yamazaki, now 52.
