In October 2005, Yamashita and Kazuya Kamenashi from KAT-TUN formed Shuuji to Akira to promote their drama,
Nobuta wo
Produce. It was named after their characters in the show, Shuuji and Akira. They also
released a single, Seishun Amigo, as
Shuuji to Akira, which sold over one million copies in four weeks. Seishun Amigo was the number one best selling single on the Oricon Yearly Single Rankings for 2005. NEWS, however, was temporarily disbanded and all group activities suspended after the suspension of two of its
members for underage drinking.
In spring 2006, Yamashita starred in "Kurosagi: The Black Swindler", a drama based on the manga of the same name. For this purpose, Yamashita recorded his first single as a solo artiste "Daite Señorita" which was #1 in the Oricon ranking.
As of June 2006, he became part of an unofficial group within Johnny''s Entertainment called "No Border", which includes members: Matsumoto Jun of Arashi, Murakami Shingo of Kanjani8, Satou Atsuhiro, Ikuta Toma of Johnny''s Junior''s, Domoto Koichi of Kinki Kids, Yamaguchi Tatsuya of TOKIO and Takizawa Hideaki of Tackey & Tsubasa. The group was formed when the 8 members from different JE groups met up for dinner and decided to name themselves "No Border." They are known to interact freely, bypassing the sempai-kouhai relationships formed by JE. There is a 7 part round-robin on their jwebs about the formation of the group. Each member has a specific color - White, Black, Red, Pink, Purple, Gold, Blue, Grey. However, who holds which color is still unknown.
In the latter half of 2006, Yamashita and Thai brother duet Golf & Mike teamed up with
Kitayama Hiromitsu (Kis-my-ft2),
Inoo Kei (J.J. Express),
Totsuka Shota (A.B.C.), and
Yaotome Hikaru (Ya-Ya-Yah), to form a temporary unit called
Kitty GYM, though there has never been a second
T. This unit was made to cheer on the Japan Women''s Volleyball team, and they released a single in August called "Fever to Future" under the name "GYM" which stands for
Golf,
Yamashita, and
Mike, respectively.
Yamashita returned as a member of NEWS on December 31st 2006 on Johnny''s Countdown 2006-2007.
Early 2007, Yamashita along with KAT-TUN''s Koki Tanaka and Taisuke Fujigaya of Kis-my-ft2, starred in Byakkotai, a two-part mini-drama.
Yamashita''s first film, Kurosagi is due to be released in 2008.