Enomoto was executive vice president and chief strategy officer for LiveDoor in Tokyo, an IT company. He is now a private investor. Enomoto, who goes by the name Dice-K, has been certified by the Russian Federal Space Agency’s Government Medical Committee to commence cosmonaut training.

Space Adventures said Enomoto has been scheduled to fly aboard a Russian Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft to the station, where he will remain for an undisclosed period of time.

The first phase of his preparation will include cosmonaut theoretical and physical training, along with Russian language tutoring, Space Adventures said in a statement. In 2001, the company arranged for Californian Dennis Tito to make the first commercial space flight to the station. He was followed by South African Mark Shuttleworth in 2002. In 2005, Gregory Olsen from New Jersey became the world's third private space explorer. Enomoto will be Japan's first astronaut to visit the ISS.

"We, at Space Adventures, are proud to announce the commencement of Dice-K’s orbital spaceflight training," said Eric Anderson, the company’s president and CEO. "We look forward to his launch in September when his dream of spaceflight will be realized and we hope and trust that he will be an inspiration to others around the world to pursue their own dreams of spaceflight."

Space Adventures is headquartered in Arlington, Va., with offices in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Moscow and Tokyo. It offers a variety of programs for private parties, including orbital spaceflight missions to the ISS, terrestrial flights in zero-gravity arcs and in Russian MiG fighter aircraft, cosmonaut training, spaceflight qualification programs, reservations on future suborbital spacecraft and commercial expeditions around the moon.

The company's advisory board comprises Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, Shuttle astronauts Kathy Thornton, Robert (Hoot) Gibson, Charles Walker, Norm Thagard, Sam Durrance, Byron Lichtenberg, Pierre Thuot and Skylab astronaut Owen Garriott.

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