Yama is the Professor/Head of the Pediatric Surgery Department at Juntendo University School of Medicine, (Tokyo, Japan). He graduated from Juntendo and continued his pediatric surgery training there and also at Alder Hey Hospital, (Liverpool, England), Great Ormond Street Hospital (London, England), Princess Alexandra Hospital (Queensland, Australia)/Royal Brisbane Children's Hospital (Brisbane, Australia) and Wellington Hospital (Wellington, New Zealand). His clinical interests include Minimally Invasive Surgery, Hepatobiliary Surgery, Anorectal Malformation and Hirschsprung's Disease. He is on the Editorial Board as an Editorial Consultant for Journal of Pediatric Surgery and Pediatric Surgery International, as well as being the Pediatrics Asian Editor for Journal of Laparoendoscopic Advanced Surgical Techniques (JLAST) and JLAST Videoscopy. He is also an Associate Editor for Frontiers in Pediatric Surgery. He has served as the President of the International Pediatric Endosurgery Group in 2007 and as the Publication Committee Chairman of the Pacific Association of Pediatric Surgeons from 2007-2009. He is currently the President of the Asian Association of Pediatric Surgeons, on the Board of Directors of the Pacific Association of Pediatric Surgeons, the Publication Committee Chairman of the Japanese Society of Pediatric Surgeons (international session), the Publication Committee Chairman of the Asian Association of Pediatric Surgeons Pediatric Surgeons as well as holding numerous and other positions in various Japanese and International Pediatric Surgery Associations. He will be the President of the Pacific Association of Pediatric Surgeons in 2016. Presently, he has published over 270 peer-reviewed articles in various high-quality journals.