a native of tokyo and graduate of george washington university, he started his career in 1993 working for the political campaign of the new party sakigake alongside future prime minister naoto kan. akutsu joined the formation of the democratic party of japan in 1996. he ran under their ticket in the 1996 general election as a candidate for tokyo 24th district, but lost. in 2000, he ran and won the race for tokyo-24th and entered the diet for the first time. he lost the district race in the 2003 election, but was re-elected through the tokyo proportional representation block. in 2005, he ran as candidate for the tokyo prefectural elections but lost. in 2009, he returned to the diet but lost his seat in the 2012 elections.