Aki, played by Akiko Wakabayashi, is a character in the 1967 James Bond film, You Only Live Twice. Aki is portrayed as being an extremely beautiful, intelligent and capable young Japanese woman in her early to mid twenties who works for the Japanese secret service. She is a warm, friendly person who displays an affinity for wearing traditional Japanese garments and is bilingual in Japanese and English. Despite her seemingly genteel manner, however, Aki can be professional when she needs to be, and maintains a feeling of loyalty towards others in her missions.

Akiko Wakabayashi as Aki in ‘You Only Live Twice’.

Aki is first seen when 007 meets her at a sumo wrestling show. Bond is there to meet a contact who will take him to Mr Henderson, M’s recommended contact in Japan. He confirms that Aki is his contact by saying the code words “I love you” to her. Aki takes Bond to meet Henderson.

After Henderson is killed during their meeting, Bond attacks and kills one of the killers. Taking the man’s place, he is driven to the Osato Chemical Works HQ, where he is discovered by the villains. Aki rescues him, then takes him to meet Tiger Tanaka. It is after this that Aki invites Bond to spend the night with her “I think I will enjoy very much serving under you” and Bond carries her to bed wear they have sex.

The next morning, Bond returns to the Osato Chemical Works and meets Mr Osato. Leaving after the meeting, he is pursued by gunmen, from whom Aki rescues him again. The gunmen chase Aki’s car and she leads them out into the countryside, where a Japanese Secret Service helicopter lifts their car off the road with a giant magnet and drops it into the sea. She then takes him to a quayside to investigate a ship he suspects is being used by the villains. He tells her to leave and report to Tanaka, which she does after initially saying that she will not leave him.

Aki next appears when, after Bond is captured and almost killed by Helga Brandt, she meets him back at Tanaka’s Headquarters, when Bond is about to go on another mission; however this is one that Aki cannot accompany him on. By the time Bond returns to the base in Kyoto, Aki is already fully briefed on the plan to disrupt SPECTRE’s plot and she too would be part of Tanaka’s ninja force although (much to her disappointment) she cannot play the part of Bonds “wife” in the cover operation.

Unknown to anyone is the fact that assassins have been sent to kill Bond. This leads to Aki’s untimely demise, when one night after training at the ninja academy an assassin stealthily enters where Bond and Aki are sleeping and lowers a thin cord over Bond’s mouth, dripping poison down this. At the last moment, Bond turns in his sleep and Aki moves to his position. The poison falls on Aki’s lips, causing a brief desperate struggle for breath. Her gasps wake Bond up, causing him to notice and then kill the assassin. It is too late for Aki however, who dies after desperately trying to speak. Ultimately her last words are “I’m… I’m… I…” before she succumbs to the poison and dies.

See also:

• Bond girls