[2] Kamiyama Training Airfield was opened by the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II.

It was briefly used by the United States military after the war and then by the Japanese Self-Defense Force as a training facility.

[3] The number of passengers using the airport peaked in 1991 and declined precipitously, particularly on the Tokyo route, due to the completion of the Yamagata Shinkansen in 1992.

[3] During the aftermath of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, American troops used Yamagata Airport as a base for transporting fuel and materials to the disaster areas (part of Operation Tomodachi).

According to the Ministry of Defense, this was the first time that the U.S. military had used a private airport in Japan for anything other than emergency landings.