Akiko Wakabayashi
Biography
Aki is a fictional character created for the 1967 James Bond film You Only Live Twice. In the film, Aki, played by Akiko Wakabayashi, is a female ninja agent with the fictional Japanese Secret Intelligence Service (SIS).
Aki does not appear in Ian Fleming's 1964 novel. She was originally named Suki in Roald Dahl's screenplay. According to James Bond Films, the character was "Dahl's tribute to the Japanese woman of the Sixties".
The character is portrayed as an attractive female Japanese SIS agent, a skilled ninja, and an expert driver who often uses her skills to drive her white Toyota 2000GT sports car equipped with several high-tech communication devices.
Mie Hama was cast to play Suki, but she had trouble learning English; to solve the problem, she and Akiko Wakabayashi, originally cast to play the part of almost-silent Kissy Suzuki, decided to swap their respective roles.
Wakabayashi then convinced director Lewis Gilbert to change the name of her character to Aki. Aki serves as Bond's main contact and apparent love interest for most of the film but is killed before the climax and replaced by Kissy.
