Yuma Nakayama

Yuma Nakayama (中山 優馬, Nakayama Yūma, born January 13, 1994) is a Japanese actor and singer. He was born in Osaka, Japan.^[1]

He was a past member of many Johnny's Jr. groups such as Top Kids and 7 West. He released his debut CD single in 2009 as part of Yuma Nakayama w/B.I.Shadow and NYC Boys. He both performs both as a solo artist and as part of Johnny's Entertainment special unit, NYC.

Career

2008-2009: Acting debut, Yuma Nakayama w/B.I. Shadow and NYC Boys

On April 2008, Nakayama was cast to make a starring role for the drama Battery.^[2]

On June 2009, it was announced that Nakayama would form a group together with four other Johnny’s Jr. called B.I. Shadow forming the name Yuma Nakayama w/B.I.Shadow. They are the second Johnny's group after Tackey & Tsubasa to have a name directly in the group name, and are also the second group after News to have both Johnny's Jr. and Kansai Jr. members together in one group. On the same month of the year, it was also revealed that Nakayama will be joined by two Hey! Say! JUMP member, Ryosuke Yamada and Yuri Chinen to form a special group called NYC Boys. The NYC was an abbreviation of each member initial and the boys referred to the B.I. Shadow.

On July 2009, he starred in the drama Koishite Akuma.^[3] Yuma Nakayama w/B.I.Shadow provided the theme song of the drama titled Akuma na Koi which went on to sell 100,000 plus copies to date making them the youngest group to top the Oricon chart beating the previous record of Hey! Say! 7 with Hey! Say!. Akuma no Koi was released as split single with NYC Boys debut single, Akuma na Koi.^[4]

In November, the media announced that they would be guest appearing on Japan's highest rated annual music television show, Kōhaku Uta Gassen, on December 31, 2009. Other guest appearances this year include FNS Kayosai on December 2, 2009.^[5]

2010-present: NYC

On January 1, 2010, media announced that the group would not be a temporary one anymore and that Ryosuke Yamada and Chinen Yuri would be working as members of both Hey! Say! JUMP and NYC Boys in the future.

NYC without the boys (B.I.Shadow) release a new single, titled "Yūki 100%", on April 7, 2010.^[6] It was the opening theme song for an anime titled Nintama Rantarō. The coupling song "Yume no Tane" was the ending theme. The song "Yūki 100%" topped Japan Billboards' Weekly Hot 100 and Oricon's Weekly Chart.

On October 20, 2010, NYC released a single titled "Yoku Asobi Yoku Manabe". The single reached number one on the Oricon weekly charts in its first week of sales.

On March 9, 2011, the group released a new single with the name of "Yume Tamago", which peaked first on the Oricon Daily Singles chart with 31,393 sales and ended up in fourth position on the Oricon Monthly singles chart with 154,140 sales, being certified gold by the RIAJ.

On February 2012, NYC released their fourth single which was titled "Wonderful Cupid" and contained Nakayama's solo song Glass no Mahou. On May 2012, NYC released their fifth single, titled "Haina!".

2012: Solo career

On October 31, 2012, Yuma released his first solo single entitled Missing Piece. The single includes "Missing Piece" as the opening song and "Mizu no Kaeru Basho" as the insert song for the his TV drama Piece; the latter song is his rendition of "Kuroi Mizu" (written and originally performed by singer/songwriter Mikio Sakai).

2013

Yuma played a role as a Kabuki actor from a non-Kabuki inclined family in the drama Pin to Kona.

It is announced that Yuma will have New Song "Ai made ga naifu" as the ending theme of Fuji TV's daytime drama "Tengoku no Koi" that will start on October 28 and will be shown everyday from 13:00-14:00 (JST)starred by Johnnys Juniors Takada Sho and Uchi Hiroki. The CD Release is still undecided.^[7]

2014

Nakayama's second solo single, "High Five" was released on April 2, 2014.^[8]

Nakayama was cast as Jotaro Matsui in a Fuji TV adaptation of the manga Smoking Gun^[9] together with his senior Shingo Katori.

Nakayama was able to release his third solo single, "Get Up!" that was released on September 10, 2014. It was the hardest PV shoot for him as he danced all day(while doing works in between), in order to film 7 different angles.

Nakayama's first album "Chapter 1" will be released on November 26.

Discography

For Nakayama Yuma's works with NYC, see NYC
For Nakayama Yuma's works with Nakayama Yuma w/B.I.Shadow, see Yuma Nakayama w/B.I.Shadow