1948. 1. Born in Busan, Gyeongsangbuk-do

1970. Passed the 12th National Judicial Examination

1973. Judge Advocate

1975. Judge of Seoul Civil District Court

1983. Director of Litigation of National Court Administration(NCA)

1989. Professor of Judicial Research & Training Institute

1991. Presiding Judge of Seoul Civil District Court

1991. Chief of Litigation Bureau of NCA

1993. Presiding Judge of Busan High Court

1994. Chief of Judicial Policy Research Office of NCA

1999. Chief Presiding Judge of Bankruptcy Division of Seoul District Court

2000. Chief Presiding Judge of Civil Division of Seoul District Court

2001. Chief Judge of Northern Branch Court of Seoul District Court

2002. Chief Judge of Busan District Court

2003. Vice Minister of NCA

2003. Chief Judge of Patent Court

2005. Justice of the Supreme Court

2011. The 15th Chief Justice

2017. Retired as Chief Justice

Chief Justice Yang, under the slogan of the ‘open court reaching out to the people' strengthened measures to better reach out to the public in an effort to improve public confidence in the judiciary. He overhauled personnel system of judges by introducing a ‘life-time judgeship' through which high-level judges upon retiring as Chief Judge of a court can go back to an appellate bench or a judge-alone trial court. Also, Chief Justice Yang adopted measures to improve operation of each instance of trials with much focus on the ‘fact-finding trials(the first and second instance trial)' in the conviction that the most ideal trial system is where a decision of lower courts based on thorough review of cases leads to a similar decision at higher level courts. He established Judicial Policy Research Institute with a vision of a medium and long-term research on judicial policy, and Seoul Bankruptcy Court, a first instance level court specialized for insolvency cases.