[1][2] A native of Chiba, Yonekura attended Yachiyo High School in his home prefecture and after graduating he signed for local club JEF United in 2007.
[3] Despite this setback, Gamba went on to be crowned J2 champions in 2013 and signed Yonekura ahead of their return to Japan's top flight in 2014.
Yonekura scored 3 times in 34 appearances in all competitions and was a part of a rotation system with fellow full-backs Oh Jae-suk and Hiroki Fujiharu.
However the following year under the management of first, Brazilian Levir Culpi and, following his sacking, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Yonekura began to play more regularly, scoring once in 26 games as Gamba eventually finished up 9th in the league standings.
[1] On 23 July 2015, Japan's coach Vahid Halilhodžić called him for the upcoming 2015 EAFF East Asian Cup.