 In 1994, Yamamoto joined the New Frontier Party and entered the 1996 race in the newly created as a PR candidate following the parallel voting system reform, defeating of the Social Democratic Party and Ryota Takeda of the LDP.Yamamoto left the New Frontier Party before it disbanded in 1997.For the next general election of 2000, he once again ran in the 11th precinct, but this time as a conservative independent, and again garnered more votes than Nakinishi and Takeda.