Japanese ski jumper Hiroka Yamada made his World Cup début at Sapporo in 2000, finishing 46th in the large hill, but missed the rest of the 2000/01 season due to injury. In a World Cup career that spanned from 2000-11, Yamada had 48 individual starts, and enjoyed just one podium finish of second, in the large hill team event. Four times in World Cup competition, he finished amongst the top-10, with his best results being two fourth places at Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Hakuba, both within three weeks of each other in 2002. A native of Nagano, Yamada was a member of the fifth-place Japanese team at the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games, and individually finished 33rd on the normal hill.
Japan