Tetsuo Yamakawa was born in Naha City, Okinawa After joining the Okinawa prefectural government office in 1991, he developed the Okinawa Tourism Promotion Road Map as section chief of the Tourism Policy Division in 2013. Since 2016 as the first director of the Karate Promotion Division, he has been engaged in the opening of the Okinawa Karate Kaikan, formulation of Okinawa Karate Promotion Vision, and the holding of the first Okinawa Karate International Tournament. He is working on the promotion of karate, which originated in Okinawa.