Akira Shima

On February 6, 2018, Shima defeated Keita Kadokura in a Meijin Class C1 league game to become the 21st person to win 800 official games as a professional, and was awarded the "Shogi Honor Fighting-spirit Award" as a result.

Shima has served on the Japan Shogi Association's board of directors on multiple occasions. He was first elected as a director at the association's 56th General Meeting for a two-year term on May 26, 2005. In May 2011, Shima was re-elected to the board of directors once again, but this time as a non-executive director. He was re-elected as a director in June 2013 and 2015, but was selected to be a managing director each time. He announced his resignation in January 2017 to accept responsibility for the association's handling of the 29th Ryūō challenger controversy.

Shima has appeared in major title matches 6 times, but his only title victory came in 1st Ryūō title match in 1988. Shima also won the now defunct All Star Kachinuki-sen [ja] 3 times (1982, 1985–86) for his only other shogi championships during his career.

Shima is a member of the so-called Shōwa 55 group (55年組), a group of eight strong players that become professional in 1980–1981 (year 55 of the Shōwa period) and won numerous shogi tournaments. Others in the group include Yoshikazu Minami, Osamu Nakamura, Michio Takahashi, Yasuaki Tsukada, Hiroshi Kamiya, Masaki Izumi, and Yūji Yoda.

Akira Shima (島 朗 , Shima Akira, February 19, 1963) is a Japanese professional shogi player, ranked 9-dan. He was the first Ryūō title holder and is also a former managing director of the Japan Shogi Association.