Born in 1979 in Saitama, Japan, Kenji Yamada joined TV Asahi in 2003 after graduating from Keio University. He worked as a film/TV producer for over 10 years, producing numerous notable works, including the film Gaku and the TV series Border and Dele. Yamada is a two-time winner of the Tokyo Drama Awards and a three-time winner of the Galaxy Awards.

In 2019, Dele won the Grand Prix at the MIPCOM Buyers’ Awards for Japanese Drama. Since April 2019, Yamada has been working at Toho as a producer and chief manager of the planning and production department. Among his notable productions are the Netflix series The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House, written and directed by Kore-eda Hirokazu, and A Hundred Flowers, the first Japanese film to win the Silver Shell for Best Director at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. Additionally, he produced Kore-eda Hirokazu’s latest film Monster, which earned the Best Screenplay and the Queer Palm at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Kenji Yamada's most recent work, Godzilla Minus One was released in Japan on November 3, 2023.