Akemi was born in Tokyo and began piano lessons at age 3. She graduated from the prestigious Musashino Music College in 1985 and studied further with Deborah Sobol of the Chicago Chamber Musicians. In 1990, Akemi attended chamber music classes of clarinetists John Yeh (Chicago Symphony Orchestra) and Michael Arringnon (Professor-Paris Conservatoire). She has taught and performed in Japan and Australia in both Concerto and Recital roles, and in collaboration with Hiroyuki Iwaki’s Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa in its chamber music series from 1990-1995.
In 2002, she appeared in a live broadcast on the ABC with her trio Ensemblinx, and performed with her husband, clarinetist Robert Schubert at the Australasian Clarinet & Saxophone Conference in Brisbane in July of that year.
Akemi is a sought after teacher and accompanist and is regularly engaged at the Victorian College of the Arts, the University of Melbourne Faculty of Music, and Monash University Music Department.