Tomohisa Yamashita

Tomohisa Yamashita (山下智久, Yamashita Tomohisa, born April 9, 1985), also widely known as Yamapi (山P, YamaP), is a 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 until October 31st 2020.