Born in 1942 and graduated from School of Law, Chuo University. Yamada Akiyoshi injured his spine when he was 15 and became paralyzed. In 1968, he established an organization to improve the lives of severely physically disabled people, where he became the first president of the organization. His organization has been involved in various forms of social welfare activities. In 1990, he started AJU with the vision that social welfare should be enjoyable and fun. After the Tokai storm disaster in 2000, he became involved in disaster response strategies for the physically disabled by the physically disabled. After the Great East Japan Earthquake, he was responsible for delivering relief supplies to evacuation shelters.
