[9][12] She left the channel in 1995 to join the Japan Press, a Tokyo-based independent media group,[9][12] which covers news and produces documentaries for TV broadcasting and magazines focused on the Middle East and Southwest Asia.

[13] Known for employing hand-held video cameras and performing her own editing,[14] Yamamoto served as a correspondent for the Japan Press in critical areas such as Kosovo, Bosnia, Chechnya, Indonesia, Afghanistan in 2001, Iraq in 2003 and Uganda.

[15] She survived a coalition tank shell strike on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad on 3 April 2003 where two journalists from Reuters and a Spanish broadcaster were killed.

[12] Yamamoto was on assignment in Syria for Nippon TV to cover the ongoing civil war and the impact it had on the Syrian civilian population when she was killed.

[15][17][20] Yamamoto and her Japanese colleague and boyfriend, photographer Kazutaka Sato, were travelling with fighters of the Free Syrian Army when they came under attack in Aleppo.

[23] She died at a nearby hospital after suffering gunshot wounds to the neck[2][4] while a rebel fighter gave a conflicting account that she was killed during shelling by the pro-government forces.

[26] Her body was delivered by the members of the Liwa Asifat al Shamal, one of the groups attached to the Free Syrian Army, to Japanese consular officials in Kilis, southern Turkey, at 1:00 pm on 21 August 2012.