Tomohisa Yamashita (山下 智久, Yamashita Tomohisa, born April 9, 1985), also widely known as Yamapi (山P, YamaP), or Tomo, is a Japanese singer, actor, and TV host.
Yamashita joined the Japanese talent agency Johnny & Associates as a trainee in 1996 (age 11) and made his small acting debut for NHK's Shonentachi (1998) and has been active on Japanese TV since then. Yamashita made his official CD debut as part of idol group NEWS in 2004 and later debuted as a soloist in 2006. He got his successful acting career after an interesting portrayal as Kusano Akira for the hit drama Nobuta Wo Produce (2005). His biggest break as an actor came in 2006 when he landed his first lead role for popular drama Kurosagi. On October 7, 2011, Johnny & Associates announced that Yamashita and Ryo Nishikido were no longer members of NEWS, and Yamashita would be concentrating on his solo projects as actor and solo singer/idol. His solo music label was under Warner Music Japan until 2016. In mid-2018, Yamashita's music label moved to Sony Music Japan; however, Sony only managed Yamashita's music activities while his main career management remain under Johnny & Associates, which he left on October 31, 2020. As early as 2019, he signed a brokerage contract with Westbrook Entertainment, a brokerage company opened by Will Smith as he aspires to reach global audiences and overseas business territory.
Yamashita is widely known for his many popular dramas such as Nobuta Wo Produce, Kurosagi, Proposal Daisakusen, Buzzer Beat, Code Blue series, From Five To Nine 5-ji Kara 9-ji Made: Watashi ni Koi Shita Obōsan and more. His latest movie Code Blue the movie (2018) was the highest-grossing domestic movie In Japan for the year 2018 and #5 for all-time highest-grossing live action movies in Japan.
Early life
Yamashita was born in Funabashi, Chiba. His parents separated when he was a child, and both Yamashita and his younger sister were raised mainly by his mother. His real name is Tomohisa Aoki but he changed his surname to his mother's after his father left. His mother's name is Naomi Yamashita and his sister's name is Rina Yamashita. His nickname when he is young is 'Yama'. He is an athletic person ever since he is young. Since kindergarten, he started learning karate and got purple belt.
He became motivated to send in his application to the talent agency Johnny & Associates after watching one of Takizawa Hideaki's dramas and aspiring to appear on television like him. He sent in applications to many agencies but only Johnny & Associates called him for an audition. In 1996, he became a trainee under Johnny & Associates as a part of group Johnny's Junior. He debuted as a singer in a three-member Japanese band called NEWS and as a soloist in 2006. In 1998, he later debuted as an actor with a small role in 'NHK's Shonentachi'. Since debuting, he is widely known as 'Yamapi', short for Yamashita and Pink. The nickname "Yamapi" was given to him by Takizawa Hideaki as he forgot to wear pink clothing for a performance one time and was repeatedly scolded by his coach, 'Yamashita, Pink!', 'Yamashita, Pink!', much to everybody's amusement. His other nicknames include 'Pi', 'Tomo-chan','Pi-Chan' or 'Pii-Tan'.
Yamashita graduated from Horikoshi Gakuen's performing arts course for high school students in 2004. In Junior High, he joined athletes club. At Horikoshi, he shared a classroom with celebrities such as Koki Tanaka, Koike Teppei, and Yu Shirota. After graduating from high school, Yamashita was accepted into Meiji University's School of Commerce. He graduated with a Commerce degree (major in marketing) in autumn 2008.
