Takayuki Yamada

Yamada got scouted after shopping with his sisters in front of Laforet Harajuku. After being scouted, in his third year of middle school he moved from Kagoshima to Tokyo. Yamada graduated from a middle school in Tokyo but did not go to high school to focus on his acting career. He made his debut in 1999 by starring in TV drama Psychometrer Eiji 2. He also had a significant role in the NHK Asadora: Churasan (ちゅらさん) in 2001. His breakout was the 2003 TV drama about men synchronized swimming Water Boys, taking the lead role as Kankuro Shindo. He was chosen to portray Shindo through audition among hundreds of young actors. Yamada continued his success in leading role with Socrates in Love as Sakutaro Matsumoto the year after. In the same year, he got Newcomer Award at 2004 Elan d'or Awards and was appointed as first image character of newly reformed Tokyo Metro. As of 2017, Yamada was the only male image character Tokyo Metro has ever had. After his triumphant breakout on television, he got his first movie lead role in Densha Otoko which later became Japan's 14th best selling movie of 2005. In 2002 he released 真夏の天使~All I want for this Summer is you~ a CD with a couple of songs (with the backup versions), as well as a DVD with the musical video for the theme song. He collaborated with Jin Akanishi in August 2016 to form the unit called "Jintaka", which disbanded 2 months later. And in 2018, together with Gō Ayano (guitar), and Asahi Uchida (synthesizer), forms the unit "The xxxxxx" (read as: "The Six") (Yamada is vocals). It was reported that Yamada had closed down his Instagram (@takayukiyamadaphoto), much to the surprise of the fans. On his Twitter, he confirmed the reason for doing so is that he became overwhelmed with the quantity of followers, but that he is "fine and full of energy, that it seems it is about to burst both physically and mentally".