Shin'ichi Yamashita was born in Nagasaki City, Nagasaki Prefecture, in 1952.
His mother was a hibakusha who survived the atomic bomb dropped in Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.
He is a descendant of Kakure Kirishitans in Urakami (present Nagasaki City) who kept their faith clandestinely more than 200 years under severe persecution from the Tokugawa Shogunate.
Yamashita himself is Catholic and belongs to Shiroyama Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Nagasaki.
He is a member of the Japan Catholic Doctor Association and serves as president of its branch in Nagasaki.

From his childhood, Yamashita respected Albert Schweitzer and Paul Takashi Nagai.
His mottos are “Reverence for life” and “Love thy neighbor as thyself”.
According to an interview by the Asahi Shimbun, his respect for Dr. Paul Takashi Nagai (the author of The Bell of Nagasaki) encouraged him to become a medical doctor.
At first, Yamashita was attracted to tropical medicine because he respected Hideyo Noguchi.
He received his education at St. Mary's Elementary and Junior High School run by the Augustinian order from the attached kindergarten to junior high school.
Yamashita later studied at Nagasaki Prefectural Nagasaki Kita High School.

Yamashita graduated from the faculty of medicine at Nagasaki University in 1978.
He finished a doctoral course at the graduate school of the same university in 1984.
With the support of Dr. Shigenobu Nagataki, he studied at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center at UCLA in the United States from 1984 to 1987.
After going back to Japan, Yamashita worked under Dr. Nagataki.
He earned a doctoral degree in medicine in 1989 and was installed as a professor of the faculty of medicine at Nagasaki University in the following year.
Later, he was installed as a president of the Nagai Takashi Memorial International Hibakusha Medical Center.
Shin'ichi Yamashita was born in Nagasaki City, Nagasaki Prefecture, in 1952. His mother was a hibakusha who survived the atomic bomb dropped in Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. He is a descendant of Kakure Kirishitans in Urakami (present Nagasaki City) who kept their faith clandestinely more than 200 years under severe persecution from the Tokugawa Shogunate. Yamashita himself is Catholic and belongs to Shiroyama Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Nagasaki. He is a member of the Japan Catholic Doctor Association and serves as president of its branch in Nagasaki.
From his childhood, Yamashita respected Albert Schweitzer and Paul Takashi Nagai. His mottos are “Reverence for life” and “Love thy neighbor as thyself”. According to an interview by the Asahi Shimbun, his respect for Dr. Paul Takashi Nagai (the author of The Bell of Nagasaki) encouraged him to become a medical doctor. At first, Yamashita was attracted to tropical medicine because he respected Hideyo Noguchi. He received his education at St. Mary's Elementary and Junior High School run by the Augustinian order from the attached kindergarten to junior high school. Yamashita later studied at Nagasaki Prefectural Nagasaki Kita High School.
Yamashita graduated from the faculty of medicine at Nagasaki University in 1978. He finished a doctoral course at the graduate school of the same university in 1984. With the support of Dr. Shigenobu Nagataki, he studied at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center at UCLA in the United States from 1984 to 1987. After going back to Japan, Yamashita worked under Dr. Nagataki. He earned a doctoral degree in medicine in 1989 and was installed as a professor of the faculty of medicine at Nagasaki University in the following year. Later, he was installed as a president of the Nagai Takashi Memorial International Hibakusha Medical Center.
Shunichi Yamashita