Akira the Hustler was born in Tokyo in 1969. He received his BA in 1992 and his MA in 1995, both in oil painting from Kyoto City University of Arts. Akira’s project “Living Together Plan” was started to visualize the reality of people living with HIV in 2004. He infuses his work with aspects of his private life, and he is interested in how countercultures can make worlds more attractive. His poetic memoir A Whore Diary was first published by Issi Press in 2000.