About Tomohisa Yamashita

Tomohisa Yamashita (山下 智久, Yamashita Tomohisa, born April 9, 1985), also known as Yamapi (山P) is a Japanese idol, singer-songwriter and an award-winning actor. He has been a member and leader of the popular J-pop group NEWS since 2003 and has also achieved success as part of Shuuji to Akira and as a solo artist. Yamashita graduated in September 2008 from Meiji University's faculty of commerce with a degree in marketing.

biography

He entered Johnny & Associates when he was 11 years old and is affectionately called YamaPi (nicknamed like this by Hideaki Takizawa ; short for Yamashita and the colour pink) by his friends. 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.

Post-debut

In September 2003, eight other boys from Johnny's Juniors had been chosen to form the group NewS with Yamashita, who became the leader. NewS's formation came as a shock not only to the fans of Four Tops, but to 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 since they were all juniors in relation to his status within Johnny's. Moreover he had been informed that the group would merely be a temporary one-month unit, formed to cheer for Japan's Women's Volleyball team during the games held in 2003.

Career after Debuting

NEWS made its formal debut on May 12, 2004, with the single Kibou ~Yell!~. Since its debut, NewS has had all consecutive #1 singles on the Oricon Ranking Chart. To date, all 11 singles and albums have debuted at the #1 spot.

In October 2005, Yamashita and Kazuya Kamenashi from KAT-TUN had formed Shuuji to Akira to promote their drama, Nobuta wo Produce. The duo had been named after their characters in the show, Shuuji Kiritani and Akira Kusano. They also released a single, Seishun Amigo, which sold over one million copies in four weeks. Seishun Amigo was the number one best selling single on the Oricon Yearly Singles Ranking for 2005. NEWS, however, had been temporarily disbanded and all group activities had been put on hold after the suspension of two of its members, who had both been accused of underage drinking.

In spring 2006, Yamashita starred in Kurosagi, a drama based on the manga of the same name. Yamashita once again worked with U-20 idol Maki Horikita who played Nobuko or Nobuta in Nobuta wo Produce, the chemistry between the characters they portrayed a few months prior having led them to work together on another serial drama. For this purpose, Yamashita recorded his first single as a solo artist. "Daite Señorita" climbed to the #1 spot in the Oricon ranking, the same award-giving body that awarded him the Artist of the Year award, alongside Tackey & Tsubasa and KAT-TUN. His single was the 4th best-selling single of 2006, selling more than 600,000 records -- twice the amount of NEWS's record sales per single. Much to his success, rumors and speculations have gone around the entertainment industry that Yamashita will be pursuing a career apart from NEWS as a solo artist. It was later proven to be untrue, as Tomohisa stated that he still preferred to stay with his group, and not even as their leader but simply as a member. His modesty and well grounded nature is much recognized not only by his band members but throughout the Japanese entertainment world and the fan community as well.

In June 2006, he became part of an unofficial group within Johnny's Entertainment called "No Border", which includes Jun Matsumoto of Arashi, Shingo Murakami of Kanjani8, Atsuhiro Satō of Hikaru Genji, Toma Ikuta of Johnny's Junior's, Koichi Domoto of Kinki Kids, Tatsuya Yamaguchi of TOKIO and Hideaki Takizawa of Tackey & Tsubasa. The group had been formed when the 8 members from different Johnnys groups met up for dinner and decided to name themselves No Border. They are known to interact freely, bypassing the senpai-kouhai relationship that had been imposed in the agency, which is rooted from the differring dates of their entry into Johnny's Entertainment. There is a 7-part round-robin on their jwebs about the formation of the group, and each member has a specific color - White, Black, Red, Pink, Purple, Gold, Blue, Grey. However, who holds which color is still unknown.

In the latter half of 2006, Yamashita and Thai brother duet Golf & Mike teamed up with Hiromitsu Kitayama (Kis-my-ft2), Kei Inoo (J.J. Express, later Hey! Say! JUMP), Shota Totsuka (A.B.C.), and Hikaru Yaotome (Ya-Ya-Yah, later Hey! Say! JUMP), to form a temporary unit called Kitty GYM, (though there had never been a second T). This unit was put together to cheer on Japan's Women's Volleyball team, and they released a single in August called "Fever to Future", the name "GYM" actually being an acronym for Golf, Yamashita, and Mike.

Yamashita returned as a member of NewS on 31 December 2006 at Johnny's Countdown 2006-2007, where the group was re-launched as NEWS, shortly after which they had released their 7th single, Hoshi wo Mezashite. The single debuted at the #1 spot in the Oricon Weekly Singles Ranking.

Early 2007, Yamashita, along with KAT-TUN's Koki Tanaka and Taisuke Fujigaya of Kis-my-ft2, starred in Byakkotai, a two-part mini-drama for TV Asahi that retells the story of Mineji Sakai and the young samurais of the Byakkotai group.

Kurosagi, a movie that was spun-off from the successful TBS drama, premiered on March 8, 2008. Yamashita, who played the character lead in the television drama, starred in the film, making the film his first movie. With only a budget of 2 million US dollars, the movie grossed approximately 15.5 million dollars. Such success is expected to result to more movie offerings for Tomohisa.

In August 2008, Yamashita was cast to play the aloof and level-headed intern flight doctor in the FujiTV drama Code Blue, along with other popular actresses Yui Aragaki and Erika Toda; the two-hour special was aired last January 10, 2009.

In July 2009, Yamashita will star in the upcoming FujiV drama "Buzzer Beat" with female lead Keiko Kitagawa.

Filmography

Renzoku Drama

Commencing Date	Network	Drama	Role
9 May, 1999	NTV	P.P.O.I. (っポイ!, Ppoi!?)	Taira Amano
14 April, 2000	TBS	Ikebukuro West Gate Park (池袋ウエストゲートパーク, Ikekuburō Uesuto Geeto Paaku?)	Shun Mizuno
11 January, 2001	Fuji TV	Kabachitare! (カバチタレ!, Kabachitare!?)	Yūta Tamura
9 January, 2002	Fuji TV	Long Love Letter (ロング・ラブレター〜漂流教室〜, Lōngu Raburetaa ~Hyōryū Kyōshitsu~?)	Tadashi Ōtomo
1 July, 2002	Fuji TV	Lunch Queen (ランチの女王, Lanchi no Joō?)	Kōshirō Nabeshima
4 July, 2003	TBS	Stand Up!!	Kengo Iwasaki
14 January, 2004	TBS	Sore wa, Totsuzen, Arashi no you ni... (それは、突然、嵐のように…, Sore wa, Totsuzen, Arashi no Yō ni...?)	Takuma Fukazawa
8 July, 2005	TBS	Dragon Zakura (ドラゴン桜, Doragon Zakura?)	Yūsuke Yajima
15 October, 2005	NTV	Nobuta wo Produce (野ブタ。をプロデュース, Nobuta wo Purodyūsu?)	Akira Kusano
14 April, 2006	TBS	Kurosagi (クロサギ, Kurosagi?)	Kurosaki
16 April, 2007	Fuji TV	Proposal Daisakusen (プロポーズ大作戦, Puropōzu Daisakusen?)	Ken Iwase
3 July, 2008	Fuji TV	Code Blue (コード・ブルー -ドクターヘリ緊急救命-, Cōdo Burū -Dokutaa Heri Kinkyūkyūmei-?)	Kōsaku Aizawa
13 July, 2009	Fuji TV	Buzzer Beat~Gakeppuchi no Hero (ブザー・ビート～崖っぷちのヒーロー, -?)	Kamiya Naoki

SP Drama & Guest Appearances

Date	Network	Drama	Episode	Role
5 December, 1998	NHK	Shōnentachi (少年たち, Shōnentachi?)	3	Shinya Kakuda
21 February, 1999	NTV	Nekketsu Renaidō (熱血恋愛道, Nekketsu Renaidō?)	7	-
16 December, 1999	Fuji TV	Kiken na Kankei (危険な関係, Kiken na Kankei?)	10	Satoshi Miyabe
26 December, 1999	NTV	Kowai Nichiyōbi (怖い日曜日〜新章〜, Kowai Nichiyōbi~Shishō~?)	5,13	-
13 December, 2000	NTV	Worst Date in History (史上最悪のデート, Shijo Saiaku no Deeto?)	1	Yuki Okamura
24 December, 2000	NHK	All Star Chushingura Matsuri (オールスター忠臣蔵まつり, Ōru Sutaa Chushingura Matsuri?)	-	Takumi Asano
1 April, 2001	TBS	Shōnen wa Tori ni Natta (少年は鳥になった, Shōnen wa Tori ni Natta?)	-	Ken Nagashima
7 November, 2003	Fuji TV	Budō no Ki (ぶどうの木〜里親と子供たちの愛の物語〜, Budō no Ki~Satooya to Kodomotachi no Ai no Monogatari~?)	-	Yōsuke Shindo
6-7 January, 2007	TV Asahi	Byakkotai (白虎隊, Byakkotai?)	1, 2	Mineji Sakai & Shintarō Sakai
25 March, 2008	Fuji TV	Proposal Daisakusen SP (プロポーズ大作戦 SP, Puropōzu Daisakusen SP?)	-	Ken Iwase
10 January, 2009	Fuji TV	Code Blue SP (コード・ブルー -ドクターヘリ緊急救命- SP, Cōdo Burū -Dokutaa Heri Kinkyūkyūmei- SP?)	-	Kōsaku Aizawa

Film

Release Date	Movie	Role
17 August, 1996	Shinrei Surfer no Shi (心霊『サーファーの死』, Shinrei "Saafaa no Shi"?)	-
8 March, 2008	Kurosagi (映画 クロサギ, Eiga Kurosagi?)	Kurosaki

Discography

For NEWS, Shuuji to Akira and Kitty GYM-related releases, please see NEWS' Discography, Shuuji to Akira's Single and Kitty GYM.

Solo Singles

Release Date	Title	Label
31 May, 2006	Daite Señorita (抱いてセニョリータ, Daite Senyoriita?)	Johnny's Entertainment

Variety Shows

• September 1998 Love Juniors, 8 Jida J
• November 1998 Boys Be...Jr (Episode 8)
• April 1999 Seven Samurai, J Family Betrayal
• December 1999 Yattaru J
• April 2000 Children Rose Empire 2000, The Shonen Club (still running), Music-Enta, Gakibara
• April 2001 Uso!Japan
• October 2003 NEWS Best 10
• 2007 Music Fighter

cre:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomohisa_Yamashita