Early career

Yamamoto was born in the city of Moji, in Fukuoka Prefecture. He lived in Fukuoka until graduating from Miyako High School in 1967. He would later join the Ministry of Finance immediately upon graduating from the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Economics in 1971. During his time at the ministry, Yamamoto studied abroad for two years at Cornell University's Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, where he acquired his MBA in 1975. After his return to Japan, he was stationed as head of the Iwakuni Tax Office in Yamaguchi Prefecture. Yamamoto subsequently took various postings within the Ministry of Finance and a visiting researcher position at Harvard University's Center for International Affairs, until 1987 when he took the role of head secretary for then Minister of Finance and future Prime Minister, Kiichi Miyazawa.^[2] He also began lecturing at Kyushu International University in 1991.^[3]

Political career

Yamamoto initially ran under the LDP in the general election of 1990 in the fourth precinct of Fukuoka, but could barely not secure any of the four allotted lower house seats. He returned in 1993 to the same precinct for the next general election under the newly formed Japan Renewal Party (an LDP split-off), and won first place out of the four elected representatives. In 1994, Yamamoto joined the New Frontier Party and entered the 1996 race in the newly created 11th precinct of Fukuoka as a PR candidate following the parallel voting system reform, defeating Sekisuke Nakanishi of the Social Democratic Party and Ryota Takeda of the LDP. Yamamoto left the New Frontier Party before it disbanded in 1997. For the next general election of 2000, he once again ran in the 11th precinct, but this time as a conservative independent, and again garnered more votes than Nakinishi and Takeda.

Yamamoto lost his seat for a brief period of two years after he rejoined the LDP for the election of 2003. Takeda, who this time conversely ran as an independent, defeated Yamamoto by 16,000 votes. Takeda went on to rejoin the LDP in 2004, but was rejected the party position for the 2005 election due to his opposition of the Postal Service Privatization Act. Although Yamamoto took the main LDP slot in an attempt for a 2005 comeback, Takeda had overwhelming support from the Komeito party, narrowly defeating Yamamoto—since he was simultaneously running for a proportionally represented constituency seat as well, however, Yamamoto was able to secure a position in the Kyushu PR Bloc. He was appointed Vice Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry under the first Shinzo Abe Cabinet in September 2006.

The general election of 2009 saw both Takeda and Yamamoto vying for the LDP slot of Fukuoka's 11th precinct. Yamamoto ultimately took the PR spot for Kyushu, and even with the political turnaround of the Democratic Party of Japan winning 221 of 300 electoral districts, both Takeda and Yamamoto won their respective seats. In 2012, Yamamoto successfully ran under the LDP in the 10th precinct of Fukuoka. He continued his electoral success in the same precinct in 2014, and was appointed his ministerships in 2016.

Monetary easing

Yamamoto is a known advocate of reflation policies, and is one of the first to argue for using monetary easing tools to overcome deflation in Japan. As a longtime critic of the Bank of Japan's monetary tightening policies in the Diet, he chaired multiple study groups on monetary policy when the LDP was out of power, and appealed to Shinzo Abe the need for quantitative easing.^[4]

Consumption tax

Yamamoto proposed the consumption tax increase of April 2014 to Abe Shinzo, and advised swift action.^[5][6] He also advocated for basic allowances and various public-works projects for low-income earners (among other economic policies) through a revised budget that matched the tax increase. After citing unexpected economic indicators, however, Yamamoto proposed a postponement of further consumption tax increases and concomitant policies in October of the same year.^[7]