Our roundup of Japan's top darts players only covers two things about Yuki Yamada: beating Paul Lim in the 2019 Hong Kong final, and that 121 checkout. This is a different story — in 2014, a routine health checkup almost pulled him off the tour, then ended up saving his life.
A health checkup as an independence gift
In early 2014, Yamada left the company he'd worked at for ten years to go independent — Felix, which runs the darts retailer TiTO. He'd started there part-time and worked his way up to store manager. Not long after going independent, his wife Kaori Yamada, herself a professional darts player, gave him a gift to mark the occasion: a full medical checkup. It ended up saving his life.
The diagnosis: a fast-moving stomach cancer
He took the checkup on March 10. By late March, doctors called him back with a diagnosis: scirrhous gastric cancer, a diffuse, fast-progressing type of stomach cancer. The tumor was still small and early-stage — surgery would fix it — but this type moves fast, so it had to happen right away. Yamada pulled out of the March 30 PERFECT leg in Kobe to make room for the operation.
Surgery on April 10, back on tour 26 days later
He had laparoscopic surgery on April 10. The scans afterward showed no metastasis — the good news he needed. Just 26 days later, on May 6, he was back competing at the Fukuoka leg, reaching the round of 16. He'd been PERFECT's overall tour champion in both 2012 and 2013 and was chasing a third straight title; the illness broke that run, and his 2014 ranking dropped to 4th. He still fought his way to the final at the Yokohama leg that August.
How the illness changed the way he lives
Yamada has talked about it plainly since: "You don't know what tomorrow looks like — you might get sick. So now, whatever I want to do, I just start on it right away." That wasn't just talk. He later opened his own shop in Fukuoka, a sandwich place. The version of him that used to say "someday" didn't come back from that surgery.
After surgery: from tour champion to the world stage
Once he'd recovered, Yamada kept going. In 2019 he beat Singaporean legend Paul Lim in the final of the PDC Asian Tour's Hong Kong leg, earning a spot at the 2020 World Championship against Ryan Meikle. You can watch that match below.
Yamada's story is a reminder that the moment that matters most isn't always on stage — sometimes it's a checkup you almost skip. Read more about Japan's top darts players, join up at pass.aidarts.club to track your own scores, or check the menu — AI DARTS boards run 24 hours.