Tomohisa Yamashita

Tomohisa courted controversy by posing nude for a magazine.

Tomohisa is extremely close to his mother. He changed his last name from Aoki to Yamashita (her mother’s name) after she divorced his father.

Tomohisa Yamashita was born on April 9, 1985, in Chiba, Japan. He grew up with a younger sister. His father used to physically abuse him and his mother ever since he was a toddler. A few years after the birth of his younger sister, his mother left his father and took both the children with her.

This tragedy took a heavy toll on the already sensitive mind of little Tomohisa and he turned towards music to seek solace from the ruthlessness of his daily life. His mother took him to ‘Johnny’s and Associates,’ a music group that hired young children to train them.

Tomohisa had sent countless applications to several music groups, but only ‘Johnny’s and Associates’ responded to his request. Seeing his passion and dedication, he was included in ‘Johnny’s Juniors,’ a group of teenagers who worked with the group to learn and help the group with their projects.

Along with music, Tomohisa developed a flair for acting as well. He slowly became the most famous junior from the group. The group of juniors also made regular appearances on ‘The Shounen Club,’ a place solely dedicated to them.

By 2003, Tomohisa was the junior group’s leader. Meanwhile, he dedicated his time to studies as well and graduated from ‘Horikoshi Gakuen’s Performing Arts High School’ and later graduated with a commerce degree from Meiji University.

The association with ‘Johnny and Associates’ fuelled a desire in him to feature in films and TV shows, and by the time he was in early teenage, he was offered the first opportunity. He marked his acting debut in 1998, with ‘Shonentachi.’ In 2000, he appeared in a key role in ‘Ikebukuro West Gate Park.’

Thereafter, he kept acting in series’ and films. Starting with small roles, he slowly featured in meaty roles.

‘Johnny’s Juniors’ formed a band, ‘NEWS’ and Tomohisa was included in the band. He was often referred to as the leader of the band he has stated several times in media that he was not the leader.

He released his first single 'Seishun Amigo' with Kazuya Kamenashi in November 2005. This single was a soundtrack for the drama ‘Nobuta wo Produce.’ The single became highly popular and topped the Oricon Music charts. The song sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide and going by the numbers, it still remains the best selling song by Tomohisa.

As his music career flourished with the success of his single, his acting career also blossomed in the year 2006 with an important role in the series ‘Kurosagi,’ which became a massive success.