Kota Yabu

Kota Yabu (薮宏太 Yabu Kōta, born January 31, 1990), is a Japanese singer as well as member of Hey! Say! JUMP. He is under the management of Johnny & Associates. He was born in Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture and lives in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area.

On September 23, 2001, he entered Johnny & Associates as a trainee. Inoo Kei, a member of the same group as him, was also there during that time. From the time he joined the agency (2001) to the year 2004, he had the most high pitched voice in the history of Johnny's. Which eventually led him up to become the leader of Johnny's Jr. Two months later, he was chosen to be the leader of Ya-Ya-yah. They released a CD which was very unusual because they were still members of Johnny's Junior.

On September 21, 2007, he began performing as a member of Hey! Say! JUMP.

Discography

Solo Songs

Boku wa tada...
Hoshi no furu toki
Hoshikuzu no beru
Italia (performed in the "Summary" 2004 concerts)
Mayonaka no ANSWER
Angel Come To Me
Jewel Star
Asu e (Lyrics written by Yabu)
Arashi no carnival
Rain Dance
Next Dream
My Everything
ikujinashi〜DREAM BOYS Ver.〜
Chikai no sora (Lyrics written by Yabu)
Tears and Smile (duet with Hikaru Yaotome - song written by Yabu, composition by Hikaru)
Original Iro (duet with Hikaru Yaotome)
SCORE (Hey! Say! BEST song, Lyrics by Yabu, Rap by Hikaru)
Oto (collaboration with Kei Inoo)
Dreamer(Hey! Say! JUMP song,Lyrics by Yabu)

Concerts

Johnny's Jr. Concert Tackey&Tsubasa Johnny's Jr. Daishugou (March 29 - May 6, 2002)
Okyakusama wa kami SUMMER Concert 55 Mannin no Ai no Request ni kotaete (August 10–28, 2002)
Tackey&Tsubasa「Hatachi」de Debut Giant Hits Concert (October 19–20, 2002)
Tackey&Tsubasa Christmas Party (December 14, 2002)
KinKi Kids DOME CONCERT ~FUN FAN FOREVER~ (December 31 - January 1, 2003)
2003 Concert Tour To be, To be, Ten made Ten made To be (March 29 - May 5, 2003)
Kotoshi mo Ah Taihen ThankU Natsu (August 8–28, 2003)
KAT-TUN no Daibouken de SHOW (August 12–20, 2003)
NEWS Taiwan Concert (October 10, 2003)
Johnny's Starship Count Down (December 31 - January 1, 2003)
KinKi Kids 24/7 G TOUR (December 31 - January 1, 2003)
A happy NEWS year 2004 (January 1–4, 2004)
2004 Concert Tour TackeyTsuba 22sai Kon (July 4, 2004)
Johnny's Theater"SUMMARY"of Johnnys World (August 8–29, 2004)
Tsubasa Con (August 18・25, 2004)
Shinen so-soh Kinpachi Trio Ya-Ya-yah Concert (January 2, 2005)
Ya-Ya-yah Haruyasumi Yokohama Arena Concert (March 26, 2005)
Johnny's Theater SUMMARY Digest 2005 (July 29 - September 4, 2005)
Johnny's Junior no Daibouken! (August 15–26, 2006)
youtachi no ongaku daiundokai (September 30 - October 1, 2006)
2007nen Kingashinnen Akemashite Omedetou Johnny's Jr. Daishugou (January 1–7, 2007)
Johnny's Jr.no Daibouken! @Meridian (August 15–24, 2007)
JOHNNY'S Jr. Hey Say 07 in Tokyo Dome (September 23・24, 2007)

For Hey! Say! JUMP-related concert, please see Hey! Say! JUMP.

Filmography

Dramas

Taiyo no Kisetsu (July - September, 2002) as Tatsuya Tsugawa
3nen Bgumi Kinpachi Sensei 7th Series (October 2004 - March 2005) as Kojiro Suzuki
3nen Bgumi Kinpachi Sensei 7th Series Ma no Saishuukai Special (December 30, 2005) as Kojiro Suzuki
Ninkyo Helper (2009) as Takayama Mikiya
Ninkyo Helper SP (2011) as Takayama Mikiya
3nen Bgumi Kinpachi Sensei Final as Kojiro Suzuki (TBS March 2011)

Variety Shows

The Shōnen Club (2001–Present)
Hadaka no Shounen (2002–Present)
Ponkikees21 (2002–2004)
Ya-Ya-yah (5 January 2003 - 27 October 2007)
Hyakushiki (2007–2008)
Hi! Hey! Say! (3 November 2007–Present)
YY Jumping (October 2009–Present)

TV Appearances

For Hey! Say! JUMP-related appearances, please see Hey! Say! JUMP.

DVD

Koichi Domoto SHOCK (Released on January 16, 2003)
Okyakusama wa kami SUMMER Concert 55 Mannin no Ai no Request ni kotaete!!(Released on February 26, 2003)
KinKi Kids Dome F Concert~Fun Fan Forever~(Released on December 3, 2003)
NEWS Nippon 0304 (Released on April 7, 2004)
Johnny's Fan Kanshasai~Kanzen Micchaku Special Hen~(Released on June 4, 2004)
DREAM BOY (Released on August 8, 2004)
Takizawa Enbujyou (Released on July 18, 2004)

Theatre

SHOWgeki・SHOCK (June 4–28, 2002)
PLAYZONE 2002Aishi (July 14 - August 15, 2002)
Nintama Rantaro Musical (July 20, 2002)
ANOTHER (August 4–25, 2002)
SHOCK~is Real Shock~ (January 8 - February 25, 2003)
Stand by me (July 25 - August 10, 2003)
DREAM BOY (January 8 - May 5, 2004)
Stand by Me (July 16 - August 1, 2004)
Takizawa Enbujyou (March 7 - April 25, 2006)
One!-the history of Tackey- (September 15–28, 2006)
Takizawa Enbujyou 2007 (July 3–29, 2007)
DREAM BOYS (March 4–30, 2008)
She Loves Me (December 12, 2009 - January 31, 2010)

Events

KICK! ODAIBA 2002 (April 27–29, 2002)
Odaiba Ponkikees21 (April 29, 2002)
Nintama Rantaro 10th Anniversary Event (May 12, 2002)
Nintama Rantaro Koukai Event (June 22, 2002)
Pataya Music Festival (March 19–24, 2003)
Johnny's Fan Kanshasai (October 12, 2003)
World Cup Volley Ball (November 2003)
Johnny's Senbatsu Star Baseball Tournament~What we can do right now~ (November 12, 2004)

TV Commercials / Advertisements

Fujiya Five Star (2002)
KICK! ODAIBA 2002 (2002)
Pizza-la Super Bingo Hen (2003)
Deca Sports - Wii (2009)

Trivia

He became the lead singer for a Junior Unit Ya-Ya-yah.
He hates tomatoes, cucumbers and green peaches.
He loves playing soccer.
His favorite color is red.
He is left-handed.
He can play the piano and the guitar. He has even displayed talent in lyrics writing.
He is loved by many seniors from his agency.
He and Jin Akanishi (KAT-TUN) are very close, they even bought a puppy together.
He was voted for "Most wanted as a little brother" and "Most wanted as a pet" in idol magazines.
He is like the older brother in the group Hey! Say! JUMP.
His older sister was an Arashi(Johnny's Group) fan and she sent an application to the Johnny's Agency without telling him. After the audition he successfully joined the agency as a trainee, but the dance lessons that took place every week were so hard, he told his mom that he wanted to quit. But after his mom said "I'll buy you a soccer badge" he decided to stay.
From the time he joined the agency (2001) to the year 2004, he had the most high pitched voice in the history of Johnny's. It was nicknamed "An Angel's Voice". Using that voice and his talent for singing, soon after he joined the agency he was told to sing solos and medleys on TV.
For the musical, PLAYZONE 2002, he was given his first solo song, Boku wa tada…. Trainees normally backdance for a year or two before being given solos.
In The Shounen Club, the most popular TV show for Johnny's Jr, over 100 Johnny's Jr.s performed but his performances stood out the most. Quite a few of his seniors, NEWS, KAT-TUN, and other Johnny's Jr. groups became backdancers at some point for Yabu.
In NEWS's first single, NEWS Nippon, he sang the high pitched notes and his voice is recorded in the CD.
In 2006, he wrote the lyrics to a song for the first time which was Asu e. In that lyrics, he put one or two Chinese letter from the Ya-Ya-yah members' names. (Kota's Ko means large, Hikaru's Hikaru means light, Taiyo's Taiyo means sun, Shoon's Sho means fly)
On a press conference of She Loves Me, Nishikiori Kazukiyo from Shonentai said he was impressed by how good Yabu was when singing since he was a child.
He has an older brother and an older sister.
He looks up to Domoto Koichi of the group KinKi Kids as a mentor.
He was named Kota because his parents wanted him to have a large(Ko) heart.
He is close to Akanishi Jin of KAT-TUN who was rumored to have even called Yabu's mother and ask her if he could adopt him as his younger brother. Akanishi has once even said to Yabu, "Stay beside me until you're 14 years old".
He is also very close to Kei Inoo (childhood friends) and Hikaru Yaotome.
He play guitar along with Keito Okamoto in their concert.
He studied in Horikoshi High School, with the other three Ya-Ya-yah members. Goro Inagaki, and Tsuyoshi Kusanagi from SMAP , Tsuyoshi Domoto from KinKi Kids, Yamashita Tomohisa and Tegoshi Yuya from NEWS, Matsuoka Masahiro from Tokio, Jun Matsumoto from Arashi, Ikuta Toma from Johnny's Jr, Daiki Arioka, Yuri Chinen, Yuto Nakajima, Ryosuke Yamada and Hikaru Yaotome are some examples of Johnny's idols that have studied/are studying in Horikoshi High School.

External links

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