Hirohide Yakumaru

Yakumaru Hirohide (Hirohide Yakumaru) was born on February 19, 1966, in Minato ward Tokyo, Japan. In 1981, he made his acting debut on TV drama Mr. Kinpachi in Class 3B (1979). The following year he made his debut as a singer as part of a trio called "Shibugakitai" with a song called "NAI.NAI 16" along with his Johnny's office mates Masahiro Motoki, and Toshikazu Fukawa. Shibugakitai became one of the most popular singing trio during the early to mid-1980s in Japan with an extremely busy schedule of magazine photo shoots and TV appearances forced Yakumaru to drop out of his high school. After their six-year run as a multi-talented entertainment trio, Shibugakitai ended their prolific career on November 2nd, 1988. They have a total of 40 singles and albums to their credit. After going solo, Yakumaru became busy as an actor, author, and a talk show host for a popular TV show. In 1990, he married an also popular singing idol of the 1980s, Hidemi Ishikawa. Ishikawa was rumored to be eight month pregnant when they married. Ishikawa retired from show business after marrying Yakumaru, and for about ten years to raise children, concentrating on her role as a housewife. But, as of 2006, she has returned to show business and is now working along with her husband as advertisement personality. Yakumaru now works as a host of popular morning talk show, and he has, on occasion, invited his old Shibugakitai buddies on his talk show. Yakumaru now lives with his wife, three sons, and one daughter in Tokyo.