Honorable Hamada is a former member of the Supreme Court of Japan. His service on the bench was from 2001-2006. Until his appointment to the Court, he worked in private practice, initially at Anderson, Mori & Rabinowitz and Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro.
He founded the law firm of Yanagida & Hamada in 1972, his portion of which eventually became part of Mori Hamada & Matsumoto.
He studied at Harvard Law School and received his LL.M. degree in 1966.