Tomohisa Yamashita

Yamashita was born as Tomohisa Aoki in Funabashi, Chiba. His parents separated when he was a child, and both Yamashita and his younger sister were raised mainly by his mother. After his father left the family, he changed his surname to his mother's. His mother's name is Naomi and his sister's name is Rina. His nickname when he was young was 'Yama'. He has been noted as an athletic person ever since he was young. When in kindergarten, he began learning karate, achieving the rank of purple belt.

Yamashita 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 then eight-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.