Akira Yamada (山田 晶, Yamada Akira, 7 March 1922 – 29 February 2008) was a Japanese scholar and philosopher of the West European Medieval philosophy. Member of the Japan Academy since 1998.

Yamada graduated from the Kyoto Imperial University, Philosophy section of the Department of Literature in 1944.

• 1951, Instructor of the Osaka City University, Department of Literature
• 1955, Assistant professor of the Osaka City University
• 1965, Assistant professor of the Kyoto University, Department of Literature
• 1968, Professor of the Kyoto University
• 1976, Director of Department of Literature in the Kyoto University
• 1985, Professor emeritus of the Kyoto University
• 1985–1990, Professor of the Nanzan University, Department of Literature
• 1990–1997, Lecturer of the Nanzan University

Yamada won the Osaragi Jirou Award by Lectures on Augustinus in 1987. He wrote many studies books on Augustine, Thomas Aquinas et al., and edited and translated their books.

Yamada died at the age of eighty-five, at Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, on 29 February 2008.

Works

The following books are all in Japanese.

• The Fundamental Problems of Augustinus - 1st Book of Studies on Medieval Philosophy, (1977), Soubunsha, ISBN 4-423-17005-1
• The Studies on Thomas Aquinas' ESSE - 2nd Book of Studies on Medieval Philosophy, (1978), Soubunsha, ISBN 4-423-30038-9
• The One Who is the One Existing - 3rd Book of Studies on Medieval Philosophy, (1979), Soubunsha,
• The Studies on Thomas Aquinas' RES - 4th Book of Studies on Medieval Philosophy, (1986), Soubunsha,
• Poem Anthology - The Songs of Morning and Evening, (1986), Shinchi shobou
• Lectures on Augustinus, (1986), Shinchi shobou, ISBN 4-88018-118-8
• The Christology of Thomas Aquinas, (1999), Soubunsha, ISBN 4-423-30106-7