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 UniversityYamada 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 city, Kanagawa prefecture, on 29 February 2008.