Yamada is a Japanese screenwriter and director. He graduated from the Tokyo University in 1954 and then joined the film studio Shochiku where he worked as a screenwriter and assistant director Yoshitaro Nomura. In 1969, he launched the film series Tora-san (known in Japan as Otoko wa tsurai yo), which became extremely popular in Asia and that lasted for 25 years. Since Kiyoshi Atsumi played the main role, his death in 1996 meant the end of the series. Afterwards he made another film series entitled Gakko (A Class to Remember, 1993), Gakko II (1996), Gakko III (1998) and 15-Sai: Gakko IV (2000). The Twilight Samurai (Tasogare Seibei, 2002) was nominated for an Oscar in the category Best Foreign Film and it is probably his most famous film in the western world. He made two other films in his “samurai” trilogy: The Hidden Blade (Kakushi ken oni no tsume, 2004) and Love and Honor (Bushi no ichibun, 2006). In 2008, he accepted the life-time achievement award at the Asian Film Awards ceremony. Some of his newer famous films include the autobiography of Teruyo Nogami Kabei: Our Mother (Kaabee, 2008), family drama About Her Brother (Otôto, 2010), homage to the director Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story (Tôkyô kazoku, 2013) and the drama The Little House (Chiisai ouchi, 2014) also taking place in Tokyo.