An ambitious racer who started when he was very young, Akio is in his final year of high school as the story begins. Drove his friend's red Nissan 300ZX (Z31) until, after a humiliating loss to Tatsuya Shima, he discovered "the Devil Z" a Nissan Fairlady Z S30Z (known as the Datsun 240Z in certain markets) which is supernaturally fast and extremely hard to drive. Regarded as a legend on the Wangan, though he is actually a humble young man. Still, despite his gentle demeanor, he's dead serious about racing. In fact, he is so serious that he skips school (to the point of repeating a grade) to drive the Devil's Z. Like virtually everyone else in the manga, he has trouble forming intimate relationships, although he has made some slight inroads with Reina Akikawa. His day job is a waiter for a fancy restaurant, but then got fired for showing up late too often due to late night racing. He's regularly exposed to the active social scene at the heart of Tokyo. He was already a pretty accomplished racer with his old car, but behind the Devil Z, he's nearly invincible. He also has tremendous adaptive ability and can learn to drive virtually anything. (Source: Wikipedia)