A private family funeral was held in accordance to Yadama's wishes. The announcement stated that Yadama had been in poor health since this spring, but still responded to text/e-mail messages. According to Yadama's family, the author had "lived to the fullest."
Yadama launched the Hare Tokidoki Buta novels (image right) in 1980, and it has become a best-seller and long-selling book that still gets reprinted every year. The novels inspired the 1988 film titled Fair, then Partly Piggy. Discotek Media released the film on Blu-ray Disc and DVD in 2018 in Japanese audio with English subtitles. The novels also inspired a separate television anime adaptation in 1997 that ran on ABC Family with an English dub under the title Tokyo Pig.