Tomohisa Yamashita

Tomohisa Yamashita (山下 智久 Yamashita Tomohisa^?, born April 9, 1985), also widely known as Yamapi,^[1] is a Japanese idol, actor and singer. He is active as a solo artist and as a member of the Japanese boyband NEWS.^[2] Yamashita is often referred to as the leader^[3] of NEWS but Yamashita himself and other members of the group have stated that he is not the de facto leader of the group.^[4][5]

Yamashita joined the Japanese talent agency Johnny & Associates in 1996 at the age of 11 and made his official CD debut with NEWS in 2004.^[2] In 2006 he debuted as a solo artist with the hit single Daite Senorita.^[6]

Yamashita's recent works include the Summer 2009 series Buzzer Beat and the Winter 2010 series Code Blue 2. Buzzer Beat and Code Blue 2 both aired in Fuji TV's prestigious getsukyu (Monday 9 pm) time-slot in Japan, making Yamashita the first person to have starred in two getsukyus with only a single drama season in between.^[7]

Yamashita holds a degree in marketing from Meiji University's faculty of commerce.^[8] He released his third solo single entitled One in a million on July 28, 2010. The single debuted on top of the Oricon single charts and was his 20th consecutive number one hit (most were achieved with NEWS).

Biography

Since joining Johnnys, he has been a member of Jr. groups B.I.G., Four Tops, and most recently NEWS. Yamashita began to appear in television dramas soon after he joined Johnnys. In 2000, at age 15, his performance in Ikebukuro West Gate Park earned him an award for "Best New Comer". That same year, he was voted first place in the Annual Junior Awards for "Best Boyfriend", "Most Beautiful", to name a few for the first time.

When Takizawa made his debut with Tsubasa Imai as Tackey & Tsubasa in 2002, he left as the leader of Johnny's Juniors. Around the same time, Yamashita and the three most popular Tokyo Juniors Toma Ikuta, Jun Hasegawa, and Shunsuke Kazama formed 4Tops. 4Tops then began to host the Junior television program, The Shōnen Club.

In September 2003, eight other boys from Johnny's Juniors were chosen to form the group NEWS with Yamashita as the leader. NEWS' formation came as a shock to not only the fans of Four Tops but its own members as well. Yamashita later revealed that at the time, aside from Ryo Nishikido, he had barely talked to any of the other group members. NEWS made its formal debut on May 12, 2004.

In October 2005, Yamashita and Kamenashi Kazuya from KAT-TUN formed the temporary unit, Shuuji to Akira, to promote their television show Nobuta wo Produce which also starred Horikita Maki. (Shuuji and Akira are the characters they portray in the drama.) They also released a single, Seishun Amigo, under the name Shuuji to Akira, which sold over a million copies in four weeks. Seishun Amigo topped the Oricon Yearly Single Rankings for 2005.

In spring 2006, Yamashita recorded "Kurosagi: The Black Swindler", a drama based on the manga of the same name. Kurosagi is basically about the art of swindling. For this purpose, Yamashita recorded his single "Daite Señorita" which was #1 in the Oricon ranking. Horikita Maki also starred with Yamashita in this drama.

In the latter half of 2006, Yamashita joined a Thai duo called Golf-Mike, who are brothers, to form a temporary unit called Kitty GYM along with Kitayama Hiromitsu (Kis-my-ft2), Inoo Kei (J.J. Express), Totsuka Shota (A.B.C.), Yaotome Hikaru (Ya-Ya-Yah). The unit was created to cheer on the Japan Women's Volleyball team and they released a single in August called "Fever and Future" under the name "GYM" which stands for Golf, Yamashita and Mike, respectively. Yamashita returned as a member of NEWS on December 31, 2006 on Johnny's Countdown 2006–2007.

Yamashita, along with KAT-TUN's Koki Tanaka and Kis-my-ft2's Taisuke Fujigaya, then starred in Byakkotai, a mini-drama in two parts that aired in January 2007. The drama special featured the story of Sakurai Mineji one of the members of Byokkotai.

In April 2007, Yamashita was casted in a romance drama series called Proposal Daisakusen alongside Nagasawa Masami as Iwase Ken. This was his first lead role in a Fujitv primetime drama. The drama gained a strong following which resulted in the production of a special the following year.

In July 2008, Yamashita starred in the medical drama Code Blue, playing flight doctor in training Aizawa Kosaku, alongside actressesAragaki Yui and Erika Toda. The Code Blue special was later broadcasted in January 2009. The success of the drama and special is evident as Yamashita and the main cast reprised their roles for Code Blue 2. The time slot of the series changed to Mondays at 9pm marking Yamashita's third time in the popular timeslot.

In the summer of 2009, Yamashita starred as the leading actor in a sports/romance drama called Buzzer Beat alongside Kitagawa Keiko who played an aspiring musician. On 30 August, NEWS hosted NTV's 24Hour Television event for charity. Following the release of his second solo single, Loveless, Yamashita held his first solo concert, Short but Sweet.

Yamashita returns to the big screen as Yabuki Joe in the live adaptation of Ashita no Joe in 2011. The movie also stars Karina as Yuko andIseya Yusuke as Rikishi.